


Summaries Season 5 And Beyond

by secooper87



Series: The Child of Balime [62]
Category: Bernice Summerfield (Big Finish Audio), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-12 09:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 67,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4473485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In depth summaries of Season 5 of the Child of Balime (stories never written).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are some summaries of stories that I was intending to write, as part of the Child of Balime Series, but wound up not writing. I thought the summaries were still interesting, so I figured I'd post them here, just so you can see how everything was supposed to turn out. Enjoy!

** Season 5 Ideas  **

The next season of the Child of Balime was supposed to be Jenny, Seo, and the Doctor traveling around together. First, they'd have gone to Messaline and fought a monster (which I hadn't thought up, yet). Then, they'd have gone to Sunnydale in the wild west when it was first founded , allowing Jenny to butt elbows with the Watchers Council. Neither of those stories ever had real summaries. After that came my Temporal Moebius Idea.

Temporal Moebius Idea 

Eager to teach Seo how to cook, the Doctor tries to take them to 1950's Earth to meet Julia Child. Jenny notices they're going to Earth, though, decides that's boring, and changes the coordinates to someplace she knows about that could be good.

They emerge on a planet, where Seo discovers it's the equivalent of October 1st — causing no end of distress for her, as this means she's now a year older. She complains at them that they can't just go landing on October 1, or she'll become old and cranky way before her time. The Doctor and Jenny try to explain to her that time travel doesn't work like that — but she knows and doesn't care.

Anyways.

It all goes wrong, and they wind up having to face down a bunch of evil monsters or whatever, controlled by mysterious enemies in a castle — unseen but present. But at the end of saving the day, they discover a new clue which makes them have to go into their enemies' castle and basically do a bunch of things, which wind up being countered by a mysterious force outside the castle. They very cleverly counter everything their adversaries do, and wind up back outside the castle, again. Which is when they realize that new enemies have taken up residence inside the castle, and they have to take the castle, again.

Jenny and the Doctor, strangely, aren't suspicious of this. But Seo is. Because of the date. October 1st. The date has such importance to her that hearing it causes a psychic jolt, which breaks through the temporal conditioning of the place they've landed.

"We've done this before," Seo tries to tell Jenny.  "I remember.  October 1st!  Time is folding back on itself."

Jenny utterly dismisses this, explaining that she has time senses that'll allow her to sense time loops, and this isn't one.  She assures Seo that she knows they're perfectly fine and perfectly safe.  Seo, embarrassed that her sister has better time senses than she does, doesn't mention her worried feelings to the Doctor. But Seo can't shake the feeling that something is very wrong, here.

-*-*-*-

Cut to outside the loop. We're on an alien planet, with a gigantic complex in the middle of it.  The race that owns the complex are the Agrathans, a hostile race that Jenny has faced down and defeated many times.  The Agrathans inside the complex are working alongside a profiteer (Chorjel) who sells time tech on the black market.

Right now, the Agrathan general and Chorjel are both on a raised platform, looking down at an environment bubble within a gigantic, transparent dome. Other Agrathans are monitoring everything within the dome, carefully.

On the monitors (and inside the dome), we see the castle. And Seo, Jenny, and the Doctor.

“Perfect,” the Agrathan general sneers. “Our greatest enemy, trapped and helpless — and she doesn’t suspect a thing.”

All the other Agrathans roar out, “Death to Jenny!” and similar things, some even smashing small items because they just hate Jenny so much.

(The TARDIS, by the way, is outside the dome. They pulled it out earlier.)

Chorjel has no interest in Jenny, however. But instead tweaks the settings on the monitor nearest him, and checks on the Doctor — making sure he doesn’t suspect anything.

“If there’s one person who’ll figure it out, it won’t be Jenny,” Chorjel informs them, tapping the screen. “Remember our trade. You get Jenny and the TARDIS. And I get the big money.”

Yep, you guessed it! The Doctor’s enemies have put a price on his head, and the Agrathans have agreed to hand the Doctor over as part of Chorjel’s payment. (Chorjel, a profiteer to the last, had actually created a bidding war for the Doctor’s head. The Sontarans won this bidding war, and are on their way to collect him. Chorjel just has to keep the Doctor trapped long enough for the Sontarans to show up, then he gets his money.)

The readers discover, by the way, that there were two Doctor-enemies who didn’t participate in the bidding war. The Cybermen. And — surprisingly enough — the Daleks, who were apparently preoccupied elsewhere.

Anyways.

“You’ll get your money,” the Agrathan general insists. “The Sontarans will be here any minute, now.”

He demands that Chorjel show them how to manipulate the bubble, and Chorjel pops up a display. What we see is that the inside of the dome is a temporal Mobius strip. Time folds back on itself, so that the trio keeps reliving the same events, over and over again, but on different sides. They are both inside the castle, and outside it — but due to the nature of the prison, they never see who they’re fighting against, or suspect that time is messed up.

“It’s easy,” Chorjel explains. “Just split the Mobius strip into three different strips, each one its own system."

He demonstrates on a model, which is suspended in midair. The hologram splits into three separate Mobius strips.

“Each individual is in their own system. We can pluck them out, one by one, and deliver them to whomever we choose.” He presses a button, and the hologram disappears. “But three Mobius strips will eat through the power in no time, so you’ll have to wait until the last possible second before you divide them.”

“And then,” says the Agrathan general, “we’ll finally get to kill Jenny!”

Everyone cheers.

Jenny is the Agrathans’ greatest enemy. They want to drain the information from her brain, then publically execute her in the most painful and horrible way possible — as a warning to the rest of the universe.

Funny thing is… no one's very interested in the third member of the party. No one particularly wants her. And, in fact, no one can really figure out what to do with her. Maybe just throw her into space?

Anyways.

This is when an alarm flashes, and Chorjel dives for the controls. He pokes and prods and fiddles, and his face looks more and more worried. “Something’s wrong,” Chorjel says. “It’s the Doctor’s companion. It’s like… she can see the boundaries of the Mobius strip. She’s pushing at the edges.”

The Agrathans dismiss this.

"Impossible!" says the general. "Our research shows that the Doctor’s companion is an Earth female. No Earth female would be able to break a temporal Möbius strip."

Chorjel agrees.

“I’ll run a diagnostic,” Chorjel says, and sets the diagnostic into action. As he does so, out of curiosity, he asks, “Who is the Doctor’s companion, anyways?”

“All records indicate that the Doctor travels with a girl named ‘Clara’,” says the Agrathan general. “Therefore, this must be ‘Clara’.”

At first, Chorjel seems to accept their research. And think this is a perfectly reasonable assumption. But something on the diagnostic stops him. Chorjel freezes. Then looks at the diagnostic closer, double checks a few things, runs a separate report. “No, it can’t be,” he mutters, but soon gets confirmation.

He’s a little dumbfounded.

"I heard the Doctor was clever," says Chorjel. "But this! The one thing everyone wants… and he hid it in plain sight."

Then Chorjel starts packing up, and turns to the Agrathan general.

“On second thought,” says Chorjel, “I’ll waive the fee. Oh, and you can get whatever the Sontarans owe. Just give me that companion, and I’ll be on my way.”

"What is she?" the Agrathan general asks, suddenly wary. Had they missed something?

"No one important," says Chorjel, already working to isolate her from the others. "Just something I’ve been looking for for a very long time.” He'd heard it had been hidden in human form, but he'd never actually expected to come across it! He figures the Doctor picked it up, knowing how dangerous it could be, and chose to take it on as a traveling companion so he could keep a better eye on it.

The Sontarans show up, and they are suitably happy that the Doctor has been captured. They are upset that they can't get the TARDIS, too, but decide that the temporal Mobius strip technology will make a reasonable replacement. (Presumably, they intend to study it, then attack the Agrathans with it, later, to get the TARDIS.)

The Sontarans double check – “Is the temporal technology really foolproof? We must not allow the Doctor to escape!”

During this negotiation with the Sontarans, Chorjel slips out of the room to go and pick up Seo from where the Mobius technology spat her out. He knew the Doctor was always a risk, and he’s just as happy to give that risk to someone else — in exchange for money in the bank.

Chorjel has heard through the grapevine that Seo's biology is shaky at best, and therefore, more susceptible to poisons and other things. So he brings her into a room and floods it with a cocktail of drugs that puts her right to sleep. The boards her onto his ship.

.

Back in the dome… Jenny and the Doctor have looped back to the beginning, again — but this time, without Seo, because she’s out of the system. They don’t notice, as the system makes sure they can’t remember that she was with them.

Problem is, then they hit that October 1st date.

They both realize there’s something wrong. Every time they hear the date, they can start to see the edges of the Mobius strip.

(This is what Chorjel had worried about, and why he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could.)

Turns out, every time that Seo heard the October 1st date, she’d been subconsciously using her Key energies to tear at the edges of the Mobius strip. Now, Jenny and the Doctor can see the frayed edges of their prison.

The Doctor and Jenny remember Seo, and Jenny tells him what Seo told her. The Doctor takes it all seriously, and works out that they're in a temporal Möbius strip, which is why they never registered the loop — it would have felt perfectly linear to them.

He and Jenny figure out a way to trick the system, and escape. The moment they do, Jenny takes one look at where they are. And knows exactly what's going on.

"The Agrathans," she breathes. "Oh, no."

.

Meanwhile, onboard Chorjel’s ship, Seo wakes up.

Finds herself just lying down, free and unchained, on a bed. Being sped away through space in a ship. Chorjel is nearby, piloting the ship. He tells her he's rescued her, and asks her if she's all right.

Seo is disorientated and woozy, and seems to believe him when he tries to act nicely to her and pretend to be her friend.

Seo puts a hand to her head. “Where are we going?” she asks. “And where are Jenny and… the Doctor?”

(Clearly, by this point, she’s learned better than to call him ‘father’ in public.)

“We’re going to Sontar,” Chorjel replies. “After all, the Sontarans have taken the Doctor, and it’s up to you to rescue him — before they drill a hole through his head.”

Seo glares at him. “And what’s in it for you?” she asks. “Or is this just some elaborate calibration test?”

“Calibration test?” Chorjel acts surprised. “Calibrating what?”

“Me, of course!” Seo shouts. “Testing me out! Seeing how well I kill people and destroy worlds. Seeing if you got your money’s worth out of me.” She gets up. “This isn’t a rescue. I’m just a weapon for your arsenal.”

Sure enough, the Sontarans are just a test — to see how far she'll go, and how well she operates.

“But the Sontarans really do have the Doctor,” says Chorjel. “And they really will kill him, if you don’t rescue him. So it’s still in your best interests to do what I say.”

Seo never gets a chance to answer.

She doubles up, physically sick. She has no idea why, and neither does Chorjel.

But he soon finds out when a gigantic ship swallows up his own, and the aliens cut their way inside.

It’s the Cybermen.

The Cybermen had decided, back during the bidding war, that they didn’t need to bid money for the Doctor. They’d just invade the Agrathans and take him.

However, on the way to the Agrathans’ planet, the Cybermen were distracted because they sensed their Cyberplanner nearby. They veered off in another direction, and found Chorjel’s ship.

The Cybermen’s proximity has triggered Cyberplanner instincts inside Seo, creating a mini-war inside her body which has caused her to be sick. The Cybermen board the ship to get back their Cyberplanner, but Seo manages to escape them. She carefully manages to duck and hide from them for a very long time, long enough for the Cybermen to land on the Agrathan’s planet.

.

The Agrathans, meanwhile, have realized that the Doctor and Jenny have escaped the Dome. They place everything on high alert.

The Sontarans decide to just go down there and capture the Doctor themselves — and they're taking the TARDIS and Jenny, too, since the temporal Möbius strip technology proved to be so unsuccessful.

The Agrathans are about to fight them for Jenny, but that's when the Cybermen show up. And everyone suddenly has much bigger issues to worry about.

Meanwhile, the Doctor ask Jenny — “Agrathans? I’ve never heard of the Agrathans.”

Jenny tells him that they're a race of really nasty, warlike aliens, who've been trying to invent time travel so they could go back and wipe out their enemies before their enemies ever even evolved. Jenny has been encountering them at strategic moments in history, and making sure they can't possibly succeed. She is their greatest enemy.

The Doctor's quite proud of her for this.

But before the congratulations can come, they find themselves running away from the Sontarans, who are keen to capture or kill the Doctor. Either is fine.

They get separated.

Jenny winds up running into the Cybermen. Then running away from the Cybermen. She uses her strategic brilliance to evade them.

The Doctor, meanwhile, discovers that the Sontarans have mistaken Seo for Clara. He therefore convinces the Sontarans not to kill him, by telling them that Seo isn't human. And for that reason, he’s pretty sure that the Sontarans would have more use for him alive, instead of dead.

The Sontaran commander ignores this, and is about to shoot the Doctor. But Chorjel steps out of the shadows with a super-gun (which he’s used to fight off the Cybermen), and kills the Sontaran commander. Then carefully picks off the rest of the Sontarans, nearby.

The Doctor tries to use this distraction to run, but Chorjel quickly turns the gun on him.

“Here’s the deal,” Chorjel says. “You get the Weapon to work for me, and me alone — and I let you go. Refuse, and I’ll follow you around the universe, manipulating her so she kills any planet you land on — because she thinks she’s saving you.”

The Sontarans interrupt this, and nearly kill Chorjel.

But Chorjel makes them a second offer — “Give the Doctor to the Rutans, and I’ll rent you a Weapon that’ll wipe them all out, to save him. You get the Doctor, and win your war. I get money.”

The Sontarans consider this, carefully. They really don't trust the Doctor, is the problem, and they have a suspicion that this could be a very sophisticated trap. Or that the Doctor would find a way to work against them, if he were in Rutan hands.

The Doctor takes advantage during the negotiations, and goes to the controls to the temporal Mobius strip. He fiddles with the controls and traps Chorjel and the Sontarans inside the loop — but loops their negotiations for Seo.

So by the time they realize they’re trapped, it’s too late, and everyone else has already gone.

.

Meanwhile, the proximity of the Cybermen seems to have activated something of the Cyberplaner inside of Seo. Jenny finds her, but is surprised to discover that the Cybermen are making Seo act very strangely.

Jenny has no idea what’s going on, or why Seo’s acting like a Cyberman, but she knows the best thing to do, now, is to get Seo out of there.

She uses the Cybermen to get rid of all the Agrathan time technology, then meets up with the Doctor — who’s just finished foiling the Sontarans and Chorjel.

The three race into the TARDIS, and dematerialize.

The Cybermen, meanwhile, haven’t destroyed quite all the Agrathan’s time technology. They’ve actually stolen some of it, as well. They quickly install the time technology into their ship, and decide to go after their Cyberplanner.

In the TARDIS, Seo warns the others that the Cybermen won’t give her up that easily.

Then there’s a jolt, and the Doctor realizes that the Cybermen are following them.

This story leads directly to the next story, summarized in chapter 2.

 


	2. Seo and Jenny visit Traken Idea

 

Takes place directly after the previous story.

Story starts with the Doctor, Jenny, and Seo running away from the Cybermen. Jenny wants to know why no one mentioned to her that Seo had a Cyberplanner inside her head, and they both yell back that it's complicated.

The Doctor attempts to perform an evasive maneuver with the TARDIS, to lose the Cybermen, but the console explodes! Turns out, Jenny's fiddled with the systems in the TARDIS, again, to try to see how they worked (she does this  _a lot_ ). As a result, the Doctor's evasive maneuver has taken down most of the shielding and has wound up crashing them into real time.

With the Cybermen on their heels.

"What's the number one rule, Jenny?!" the Doctor shouts, trying to evade the Cybermen through space instead of time.

"Don't wander off!" Jenny said. "And I didn't!"

"No, I mean… the new number one rule!" The Doctor pulls a lever, and the whole TARDIS shakes. "Hands off my TARDIS!"

The TARDIS buckles and groans, and it sounds like it's about to shake apart.

Jenny looks at the stars around them, and realizes where they are. "Wait! I've been here, before!" Jenny leaps at the TARDIS controls. "I know where we'll be safe!"

The Doctor tries to get her away from the controls, but Jenny manages an emergency landing.

And smashes them right into a planet.

.

When the others regain consciousness (from the harder-than-normal crash landing), Jenny is eager to show them the outside.

"It's one of my all-time favorite planets!" Jenny says, running to the doors. "I come here every chance I get. It's peaceful, it's beautiful, and it's the perfect place to hide from the Cybermen!"

She throws open the doors.

And the Doctor, Seo, and Jenny step outside. The Doctor immediately recognizes where they are. "Traken? This is Traken!"

(Obviously, they've landed during a time in Traken's past, before the Master destroyed it.)

The TARDIS, in need of repairs, shuts itself up and locks them out, so it can go into self-repair mode. Which leaves them stranded on Traken for a while.

"You know it?" Jenny asks, surprised.

"I'm surprised that you know it!" the Doctor replies.

Turns out, Jenny landed on Traken by accident, once, and found it a wonderfully peaceful and tranquil planet. She fell in love with the place. She now comes to Traken fairly often, just to relax and take a break from saving the world.

Jenny also mentions that she had a hand in using the Source to displace Quandar, back during Traken's primordial days.

Jenny and the Doctor have a discussion about all this, the Doctor telling Jenny about his own experiences on Traken, while Jenny tells him about hers, and they walk around a beautiful garden while this is happening.

However, as they're talking, Seo suddenly discovers — she can't take another step.

"Guys!" Seo calls out, trying in vain to move her legs, but finding them stuck, as if in mud. "Help!"

Both the Doctor and Jenny turn around, then hurry back and try to help Seo. However, the more they try to help her, the more stuck she becomes. And the numbness is spreading up higher and higher, every second.

"Oh, no," the Doctor says. "She's not stuck in the mud."

Jenny, in horror, realizes the same thing. "Her skin. It's… gray."

"What do you mean, gray?" Seo asks, suddenly scared, as she sees both their faces. "What's going on? Why are you looking at me like that? What's happening to me?!"

The Doctor and Jenny don't know how to say this.

"You're… turning to stone," Jenny admits.

"It's the Source," the Doctor tries to explain. "An invention on this planet. Its light shines down on Traken, and turns anything evil into stone. That's why Jenny figured we'd be safe from the Cybermen, here! Only, problem is…"

The Doctor hesitates.

"But I'm not evil!" Seo cries. She can feel it spreading up into her chest, now.

"It's made a mistake," Jenny says. "It's seen the Cyberplanner in your mind — or maybe the Weapon — and thinks you're a monster. It's trying to correct that mistake."

"But there's gotta be some way to stop it!" Seo insists. "I don't want to die!"

Jenny spins around. "Yes, there is!"

Jenny grabs the Doctor, and races to the Consul Chamber. When she arrives there, she begs an audience with the Keeper of Traken. All the consuls recognize Jenny, and welcome her to the Union — calling her an "honorary daughter of Traken."

(Jenny's part in Traken's formation have given her a position of trust for all time, on that planet. She has the privilege of being able to speak to the consuls and have an audience with the Keeper of Traken.)

The Keeper of Traken also recognizes Jenny, and welcomes her. "Jenny, the embodiment of good and light in the universe," the Keeper says. However, when he sees the Doctor, he hesitates. "But you come with another… and although his good shines through, death follows in his shadow. The Source sees a terrible future for Traken, the destruction of our world and the death of all our people — and the Doctor has a role in that future."

"Well, don't believe everything you hear," the Doctor says. 'Future has yet to be written, and all that!"

Doesn't mention that this is actually his past.

The Keeper also mentions that the last time the Doctor showed up on Traken, he was tricked into helping Quandar invade their home and kill their people.

"Dad!" Jenny hisses, elbowing him.

But the Keeper is willing to let the Doctor remain, so long as he remains under Jenny's guidance and supervision.

"And what about Seo?" Jenny asks. "My sister?"

The Keeper suddenly gets very confused. "The light of the source... has trouble... seeing her," he explains. "But it senses much evil within her."

The Doctor realizes — "Of course! The Source is 'omniscient' and 'infallible' — it's basically a god! But Seo was built specifically to confuse gods. So the Source can't see her properly."

The only reason the Source can see Seo at all is because of what happened on Fake Gallifrey, and because of the Cyberplanner inside her head. Which means that, basically, all the good parts of Seo are invisible, and all the evil parts are visible.

Jenny tries to explain that her sister is good.

The Doctor, however, explains it better.

"You say that Traken is entirely good," the Doctor reasons. "But there are still Melkur on its surface — beings of evil. What about that?"

"The Melkur are stone statues, Doctor," the Keeper says. "The evil has been contained."

"Exactly!" the Doctor agrees. "You have evil here, you just contain it. So what if Seo's mind worked the same way?"

"And all the evil you've seen inside has been smothered by her goodness!" Jenny agrees.

The Keeper concedes that this might be the case. He decides to give Seo the chance to prove herself, and lets her go.

They discover Seo out in the garden, free from stone. Seo is relieved, and very happy.

But then the Cybermen invade.

.

Turns out, the Doctor was right that the Source couldn't really see Seo correctly. All the good parts were invisible, so the only part that the Source could see… was the Cyberplanner.

According to the Source, that's all Seo is.

A Cyberplanner.

And since Cyberplanners are basically an extension of the Cybermen, themselves, that means that by making an exception for Seo, the Source created an exception for all Cybermen.

So any Cyberman can set foot on Traken, no problem.

Jenny, Seo, and the Doctor run.

.

At first, Jenny, Seo, and the Doctor assume that the Cybermen are here to get their Cyberplanner back.

They soon discover there are two groups of Cybermen after Seo. One group wants to get Seo back as their Cyberplanner. The other has already created a new Cyberplanner, and wants to destroy Seo.

Both groups invade Traken.

Seo gets knocked unconscious and dragged off to the Cybermen's ship ( _her_  Cybermen). She comes to, and finds herself plugged into a machine. It can read her (all cyber-technology can, since she programmed it that way), and will rearrange her mind so the Cyberplanner imperatives become dominant once more.

It activates.

Seo's eyes go dark. She looks and acts a lot like Mercy, from that episode in Victorian London. A Cyberplanner, through and through.

.

Meanwhile, on Traken, everyone's trying to figure out why this is happening, and how to stop it. Particularly the Doctor and Jenny. The consuls mention that they should never have let the Doctor on Traken — as death and disaster follows in his shadow.

The Cybermen, upon finding the Doctor, recognize him as one of their greatest enemies. He must be deleted.

"Don't you want my brain?" the Doctor prompts. "Secrets of time travel?"

"Negative," say the Cybermen. "The Cyberplanner has the secrets of time travel. You will be deleted."

He and Jenny make a run for it.

They are cornered, however, and wind up surrounded by Cybermen. All wanting to delete them. They figure this is the end.

But the Cybermen don't shoot.

In fact, apart from saying that they must be deleted, they don't actually seem inclined to harm Jenny or the Doctor at all. And, when the rival Cybermen show up, these Cybermen blast the others to pieces before any harm can come to the Doctor and Jenny.

The Doctor and Jenny take advantage of the distraction, and run.

"Of course! Seo's been woven into the Cyberplanner programming!" the Doctor says. "You can't just activate one and get rid of the other."

"You mean Seo's still in there, trying to protect us?" Jenny asks. "But why did they say they were going to kill... no, wait. Nevermind."

This is Seo. She may speak a lot of rubbish, but her hearts are always in the right place.

"I don't think she can override their logic," says the Doctor. "And their logic says I should die. But she  _can_  make sure they don't actually kill me."

They arrive at the consul chamber, and discover that Seo's Cybermen have been bringing the children into that chamber, to protect them. They say they're gathering organic material to create new Cybermen, but it's pretty obvious what's really going on.

This is more of Seo's personality woven into the Cybermen. And Seo doesn't hurt children.

The consuls are consulting the Keeper of Traken, trying to figure out what's going wrong. "The Cybermen are evil!" they say. "Why isn't the Source protecting us?"

The Keeper still seems very confused by the whole situation. "The Source says... the Cybermen... are good."

The consuls don't understand how the Source could be so fallible about this!

The Doctor and Jenny explain it — the Source is confused because the Cybermen are working for good, or some of them at any rate. Seo's actions (saving children, not killing the Doctor and Jenny) are proving to the Source that she is good, just like Jenny said, and it can't distinguish between her Cybermen, and the other ones.

"Long and the short of it is," the Doctor concludes, "the Source is all mixed up! Because Seo's around. And her energies make its programming go… a bit funny."

.

The fight continues. Maybe a few other plot twists here, as the Doctor and Jenny try to stop things?

.

Eventually, it becomes clear to Seo that she can't stop even her own Cybermen from converting the people of Traken, and that the other side will keep killing and converting anyways.

She learns from the Doctor and Jenny that the Source won't destroy the Cybermen because of her.

Seo gets up from her seat on the Cybermen's ship. "I am a Cyberplanner," she says, dully. Walking over to the control panel. "I have no fear."

She starts adjusting things on the control panel.

"I have no fear."

The alarm bells sound, and the Cybermen all start chiming that there's a massive reactor overload and this is not logical.

"I have no fear," Seo whispers.

Presses the button to explode the ship's reactor core.

.

In the blink of an eye, the Cyber-ship and every single Cyberman on the planet... turns to stone. Immediately.

On the ship, so does Seo.

.

Jenny and the Doctor learn what Seo has done from the Keeper.

"The Cyberplanner attempted to detonate the reactor, which would have killed all Trakenites on this continent, and turned the planet into a radioactive wasteland," says the Keeper. "The Source saw clearly for the first time. This action was evil. Therefore the Cyberplanner and its Cybermen were evil. And must be destroyed."

"She sacrificed herself to save your world," Jenny realizes.

She and the Doctor go out to the Cybership. They're really sad, when they see Seo there, like all the others. Then Jenny examines Seo a little closer.

"No, wait!" Jenny cries. "She isn't stone!"

Turns out, unlike all the others, Seo hasn't been turned to stone. She's been frozen in place.

The Doctor surmises that the Source recognized that Seo's actions were for the good of the Union, and saved her for this reason.

"When the TARDIS unlocks," the Doctor says, "I'll be able to get her back. But as long as she's on Traken... I don't think the Source will let her wake up. She's too... confusing."

Jenny feels terrible about this, since she was the one who suggested they come here in the first play. "This is all my fault," she says. "And now, my sister's going to be alone and scared, just because she tried to be a hero." She puts an arm on Seo's frozen one. "But I won't let her be alone."

So Jenny stays by Seo, and talks to her. To keep her company. That night, Jenny falls asleep next to Seo, just to make sure she won't be alone.

.

When Jenny wakes up, the next morning, she finds that the people of Traken have all gathered to place flowers by Seo's statue. They explain to Jenny that they recognize her sacrifice, and that Seo has taught them that all evil may still contain some good.

Moreover, they have sent out the children of Traken to bring flowers to the stone Cybermen. They mourn the people these Cybermen once were, and want to show gratitude for the way some of the Cybermen actually tried to save children, instead of harming them.

Jenny beams at this. Amazed, as always, by the kindheartedness of the Trakenites. "It's a beautiful idea," Jenny tells them. "Maybe… this should become a tradition on Traken. Just to remind you all that even evil creatures may have a little bit of good inside."

The Trakenites agree that this should become a custom.

And they set one up.

.

Jenny tells the Doctor about this, expecting him to be just as happy and overwhelmed as she was.

The Doctor, however, just turns away.

And sighs.

.

We leap forwards in time to when they manage to revive Seo. They're on the TARDIS, and the Doctor is explaining what he thinks will happen to the Cybermen statues, over time.

"No, they'll never come back to life," the Doctor says. "They'll stay stuck like that forever! But over the centuries, they'll crumble and erode away — until the Cybermen look just like the rest of the Melkur statues on Traken."

Seo stretches and wiggles her toes.

And everyone is thrilled that Seo is all right.

Jenny tells Seo about the Traken children giving her flowers, to thank her for her sacrifice. And how the children laid flowers by the stone Cybermen, out of thanks for saving them, and because Seo taught them that evil might still contain some spark of goodness.

Seo is touched.

The Doctor is obviously not. "Yes, well," he mutters, "it's not such a nice tradition if you've seen where it leads."

Jenny turns around. "What do you mean, where it leads? Why've you been so obtuse about this?"

The Doctor, reluctantly, tells them about the time he came to Traken, in his fourth incarnation, when the Master turned his TARDIS into a Melkur and took advantage of this same Trakenite custom to put a trance over Cassia, one of the consuls. He then tricked his way into becoming Keeper of Traken.

"And by the end of it all, Traken was destroyed by an entropy field," the Doctor said. "I saw it happen."

Jenny and Seo don't feel so wonderful about this, anymore.

They look at one another, and think about the consequences their actions really have. And how one small incident may cause the death of an entire world, in the future.


	3. Chapter 3

I had two more short ideas for stories that took place in this season.

Martha Idea

Martha, while investigating supernatural phenomena in the southern United States, gets thrown back in time, along with a group of monsters who look a lot like devils. Remembering what happened with the Weeping Angels last time, she sends a message forward in time to the Doctor, asking for a rescue.

In the meantime, Martha explores. She gets into trouble due to her dark skin, and winds up running for her life. But she's saved by a kindhearted churchman named Philip. Philip is a preacher, and a virtuous and pious man, and he takes her back to his house and protects her, giving her a place at the table with his family.

There, she meets Philip's little son, Caleb, a quiet and strange boy. Philip is clearly trying to teach his son to choose good over evil, and to follow the way of the Lord. "Every Eden has its snake, Caleb," says Philip. "Don't you forget 'bout that."

Caleb is a strange little boy. And Martha knows it. She talks to him, aside, and Caleb admits (a little shyly) that, "Sometimes, I hear the voices of dead spirits." Then adds that his daddy doesn't like to hear about that, because his daddy says it's the devil's own voice, and Caleb should reject it.

Then screams start up outside.

Martha hurries out, and realizes that the devils have followed her back in time, and are here. Now. Ravaging the town.

Martha runs outside with Philip, and tries to save as many as she can. The devils destroy nearly everything, and nearly kill Caleb — who is fascinated by them. Martha sweeps little Caleb up into her arms, while Philip shouts at everyone to, "get to the church!"

They run to the church, and barricade themselves in.

The devils soon discover a back-entrance, and Martha tries to fend them off. She's about to fail… when there's a flash and all of a sudden, Seo and Jenny appear out of nowhere! They help the others fight off the devils, and patch up the broken barricade.

Philip praises the women for their help, claiming they are "angels, sent by the Lord, to help us in our time of need!"

Then, noticing his son's continued fascination with devils, scolds little Caleb. "Keep your eyes away from the devil, my son! Seek only the light, and never the dark!"

Seo stares at little Caleb. She can't help but think… she's seen him somewhere before.

"But how did you two get here?" Martha asks Seo and Jenny.

Seo is torn away from trying to work out why Caleb looks familiar, and instead, she and Jenny explain. "We got your note! In the future!"

"Dad's still back there, trying to work things out on that end," Jenny agrees. "And sent us here, to investigate and help him out!"

Apparently, this isn't just your normal monster invasion; this whole period of history has been time locked with a rather crude lock, and they need to find out who locked it and how, so they can send the Doctor that info in the future, and he can find some way to undo it.

Then people start dying.

They die horribly, and many of them die in front of little Caleb — who is emotionally scarred for life. Too late, Seo and Jenny realize that the devils can actually shift their shape so they take on the appearance of villagers — in particular, young women.

They want to stay and fight back, but Philip forces them to leave the church.

"I'll hold them back, and protect my town," Philip insists. "Just go outside. Find whoever's behind this. And close this chasm to Hell, forever!"

"Chasm to Hell!" Seo realizes. "Can it really be that easy? Is it really just a Hellmouth?"

They head off, and discover that it's actually one of the rare temporally active Hellmouths in the United States. They find the person behind the Hellmouth, who is probably a Torchwood monster that everyone thought was defeated, and they fight.

Through something immensely clever, Seo, Jenny, and Martha defeat the villain.

And through defeating him, they wind up sealing off that particular Hellmouth, forever.

Meanwhile, back at the church, Caleb watches the rest of his town die at the hands of young women. Then sees his father, Philip, get ripped apart and brutally murdered by them, trying in vain to fight back and believe that the Lord would save him.

Caleb hears a whisper from the shadows, telling him to come into the darkness, and he would be safe.

Caleb scuttles into it… and realizes that the evil women couldn't see him.

"Good couldn't save them, little Caleb," says a voice that echoes all around him. "All those wicked, evil, sinful little girlies would have ripped you apart, if it wasn't for me."

Caleb then sees his father, as if risen from the dead. Except it isn't really his father at all.

"Thing is, Caleb, it don't gotta be like this," says the First, disguised as Philip. "Them three girlies, who brought those devils here with them — they're from the future. Change the future, make sure they die before they can come back here… and all this will never have happened."

Caleb jumps to his feet. "How do I do it?"

"Easy." Philip stretches out his hand. "There's one little girly worse than all the others. Whore of Babylon. Her name… is Buffy Summers. And if she don't never grow up — then Jenny, Seo, Martha, they'll all die."

Caleb remembers this name forever.

His enemy.

Buffy Summers.

"And all you gotta do to kill her… is accept my influence," says Philip. "Cuz you and me, little Caleb — together, we're gonna wipe out the Slayer Line. For good."

Caleb accepts. And is joined with the First.

.. .. .. ..

Fenric idea

We open with a scene of Jenny and Seo playing chess in the TARDIS. Jenny is winning, but doesn't look terribly happy about it. Seo, meanwhile, is constructing an intricate and carefully balanced tower with the pieces that both she and Jenny have captured, throughout the game.

"Hmm… need something with a fairly balanced center of mass, next," Seo observes, looking at her structure. Then she turns to the chess board, and strategically maneuvers just the right piece into place so that Jenny will capture it.

And Seo will get another piece for her structure.

"Seo, this isn't how you play chess!" Jenny snaps, finally giving up. "You don't lose the game on the board so that you can create complex structures off the board!"

Seo makes Jenny's move for her, grabbing up the needed chess piece. "Who says?" It balances perfectly. "I prefer to play chess this way. I'm rubbish at the other way."

Then the TARDIS hits a jolt in the vortex, and Seo's intricate sculpture crashes to the ground.

The Doctor races in, frantic. "Time storm!" he shouts. "We've been caught right in it!" He tries to gain control of the ship, but can't succeed. "Hold on tight!"

They do.

The TARDIS lands in Fenric's domain.

.

At the same time, back on Earth, another timestorm attacks A Charitable Earth.

By the way, by this point, Ace and Dawn have set up A Charitable Earth in order to protect Donna, and give her something to do that won't bore her so much that she seeks out trouble and gains Doctor memories, but will protect her from getting the full amount of Doctor memories.

Thus, Donna is able to be happy. But not die.

Donna believes she's working to organize charity events and help fight terrorism. Not to fight aliens.

So… back to the story! A time storm hits A Charitable Earth, and the others only just manage to get Donna out of the way in time. However, in doing so, Ace, Dawn, and Shaun are all scooped up and dragged away from Earth.

They arrive, like the TARDIS, in Fenric's domain.

.

Ace immediately understands what's happened. She explains it to Dawn and Shaun, helping them to navigate through Fenric's world.

Then they bump into the Doctor.

"Professor!" Ace cries. Then, a little worried, "Tell me this wasn't some brilliant master-plan gone wrong."

"Course not," the Doctor says, a little affronted. Pauses. Then, reconsidering, adds, "Unless it's the result of a brilliant master-plan I haven't thought of, yet, going wrong in my own future."

Ace warns him that she still has a baseball bat.

And she knows how to use it.

Then Jenny goes all funny, and her eyes glow gold. No one understands what's going on — except for Ace and the Doctor, who are outraged.

"You leave Jenny alone, Fenric!" Ace demands.

Yep, you guessed it — the gold eyes mean that Fenric has possessed Jenny. Fenric, speaking through Jenny, laughs. Pointing at Ace, calling her his "pawn."

"The child of the baby," says Fenric. "You've been working for me ever since. I plucked you from the Time War, just to make sure you could save two people from certain death and doom."

Fenric points at these two people, in turn.

"Dawn Summers, from the knights of Byzantium," says Fenric. He points at Seo. "And Seosyrae Summers, from floating through the Irkoli galaxy as a statue forever."

Ace feels cold. She shudders.

"You are my creature," Fenric tells Ace. "By saving both of them, you have created an unbreakable link between me… and the Key." He steps forwards, stretching out his hands towards Seo and Dawn. The hands radiate with power. "Time to collect my prize."

Seo and Dawn shriek, as they find themselves being dragged towards Fenric — unable to do anything against him.

The Doctor dives into the way, stepping between Seo/Dawn and Fenric. "I challenge you to the one game you can never resist!" says the Doctor. "A game of chess!"

Fenric scowls. But the Doctor's right, he can never resist that game. "You always think yourself the chessmaster, don't you? Standing behind your soldiers, commanding your army from afar."

"Oh, don't get into the melodramatics with me, Fenric!" The Doctor says, with a sigh. "I heard it all the last few times we faced off with one another." He claps his hands. "So! Here are my terms. If I win, you let us all go. If I lose — you get the Key."

Fenric lets go of Seo and Dawn. "No," he says.

The Doctor is shocked. "No?!"

Fenric drags Seo forwards. "If  _she_  wins, Doctor, then you'll all win your freedom," he says. "If she loses… the Key is mine."

"Me?!" Seo shakes her head. "But I'm rubbish at chess!"

"She is," the Doctor agrees. "Completely rubbish. What's the fun in playing an opponent that's so easy to beat?"

"I don't want 'fun'," Fenric replies. "I want the Key."

He sets up the board, and the Doctor discovers that he's one of the pieces on the board. His TARDIS is another. And Shaun and Ace are still more. Dawn is, for obvious reasons, Seo's 'King' piece.

"You're not the chessmaster anymore, Doctor," says Fenric. "Your fate is in someone else's hands."

.

There follows a bizarre chessy kind of thing, during which Seo loses the match spectacularly, but only so she can assemble the pieces off the board and use them in the end.

See, Seo realizes that if she loses certain pieces in certain ways, she can actually send those pieces back to Earth.

So she loses Shaun and Ace immediately.

Shaun and Ace wind up back on Earth, but they don't land where they started. Instead, they find themselves right outside of the Slayer Institute. There, they wind up running right into a bunch of Haemovores, which Fenric's sent to Earth in order to destroy the escaped pieces.

Shaun freaks out, but Ace knows exactly what to do!

She runs into the Slayer Institute, and grabs up one very important Slayer, bringing her out in front of the Haemovores and showing her off for all to see.

"That's right, Haemovores!" shouts Ace. "You can't kill me! Because I've got… Faith!"

Faith is completely shocked that her mere presence is enough to scare the Haemovores away. "Wuss-vamps," Faith says, as she launches herself at them. "Hey. Sounds good to me."

Strangely enough, everyone else at the Slayer Institute finds the Haemovores almost impossible to defeat. But Faith defeats them all easily.

"Because when you're facing Haemovores, the best weapon is Faith!" Ace explains, laughing at her own little joke.

(She does, at some point, explain. The key to defeating Haemovores is to have complete, unbreakable faith in something. The Doctor explained this to Ace as, 'You can defeat the Haemovores if you have faith.' Ace has realized that she has Faith Lehane, who is a slayer with a complete and unswerving faith in her ability to slay vampires. Her name and her belief in her own abilities make the Haemovores no match for her.)

.

Back in the game, Seo maneuvers the TARDIS onto a position, on the board, that Fenric can take. Then manages to lose the Doctor in a similar way.

.

The TARDIS materializes on Earth, and the Doctor steps out. He's impressed at how Ace has managed to use Faith to defeat the Haemovores, and wonders if he can't use a similar trick on Fenric.

He and the others devise a careful and complex plan that will use the Cleveland Hellmouth to defeat Fenric — the second activates the Key.

.

Fenric beats Seo at the chess game.

"Check mate," says Fenric. He grabs for her. "Now… the Key is mine. You are mine."

"Then let Jenny go!" Seo begs him. "You don't need her, anymore."

Fenric does so, and Jenny goes limp.

Dawn freaks, running over, thinking that Jenny is dead. However, it turns out that a Time Lord brain is no match for Fenric, and although Jenny was possessed, she's not dead.

Then Dawn realizes that Seo's been possessed, instead.

"All I need is your blood," Fenric — through Seo — tells Dawn, grabbing her up. "And I can create a portal that'll swallow up the universe. All life will be my life. All creatures will be my creatures. I will become the portal, and I will become the essence of all things!"

He prepares to kill Dawn.

But Jenny charges into him and his knife misses — just cutting Dawn instead of killing her.

The cut is enough. The portal swirls open, and Fenric takes possession of it. He creates a time storm along its edges, trying to turn the whole universe into his own little chessboard.

Fenric gets up, and makes a sweeping gesture. A thousand Haemovores appear from nowhere, surrounding Jenny and Dawn.

"Tear Jenny apart," Fenric commands.

.

Back on Earth, the Doctor uses his TARDIS to connect the portal into the Cleveland Hellmouth. He shouts to Faith, "Now!"

Faith dives into the Hellmouth, as it starts to glow.

.

Faith pops out in Fenric's realm, fighting off the Haemovores with ease.

"Better spread the news, Fenric," says Faith, staking a Haemovore expertly. "Humanity's got Faith. And that's enough to kick your ass."

Faith's fighting distracts Fenric for long enough that he doesn't realize what's happening to his portal. It's only when it's too late to correct the error that Fenric discovers… the Doctor's linked his portal to the Cleveland Hellmouth.

That means Fenric isn't about to control the universe.

He's about to trap himself inside the Hellmouth.

"You should have realized!" Jenny shouts, as the portal sucks Fenric — and Seo — towards it. "My sister never thinks of the pieces  _on_  the chessboard! She only plays for the pieces  _off_  it."

Fenric, in Seo's body, is sucked into the Hellmouth.

The moment it swallows Seo, it closes.

But Seo, as it turns out, has fought back against Fenric during that whole time. She got just enough control to shove him out of her mind and send him tumbling into the Cleveland Hellmouth, then slam the portal shut as she fell through its mouth.

She just barely missed being sucked into it.

They all get together, and find a way to return to Earth. The Doctor compliments them all on a job well done!


	4. Chapter 4

My idea was that, throughout season 5, the Daleks would almost appear, but be busy elsewhere. The second-to-last story of the season, which I hadn't thought up a plot to, yet, would vaguely involve the Daleks, but show that they really are busy somewhere else.

The Doctor, Jenny, and Seo would decide that whatever plan the Daleks were up to, they needed to find the Daleks and stop them.

Then — right in front of Jenny and Seo's eyes — the Doctor disappears into thin air. For no apparent reason.

That'd lead into my season finale.

Season 5 Finale

At the end of the previous story, the Doctor disappears. He is whisked through time and space using surprisingly sophisticated technology; he remarks on this when he arrives.

When he does arrive, the Doctor blinks. Stares at the area around him.

The place is completely wrecked, like someone's gone through and smashed everything up, or started a war in there, or something. But it's been patched up, since, and the technology that's been patched is absolutely brilliant.

Some of the technology, the Doctor realizes, is incredibly close to Time Lord tech.

"Welcome, Doctor," says a voice from the shadows. There's a sound of a machine drifting into view.

It's Davros.

"Davros," the Doctor sighs. "Of course it would be. How did you escape, after that business with the reality bomb?"

Davros laughs. "I had… help."

"Help?"

Davros presses a button, and two tanks of green goop light up behind him. The tanks contain two comatose bodies, lying inside.

Seo and Jenny.

"Such dutiful children, Doctor," says Davros. "They watched you disappear. Didn't know where to find you. They traced you to the Crucible, ran into the flames to drag you out. But you had already left."

"And they found you, instead," the Doctor realizes. He curses within his head. "How did you convince them that you were me?"

"With… difficulty," Davros replies. "At first, they didn't know the difference. They thought you'd been badly burned by the flames. When they worked it out… I 'persuaded' them. With a few small surgical procedures."

The Doctor gets very angry at this.

"Tell me what happened, Davros," says the Doctor. "Tell me everything!"

Here's what happened:

After the Doctor disappeared, Jenny and Seo raced off to the TARDIS, to get it to find him. They managed, with a lot of fiddling around, to work out how to fly it. Then they tried to follow any trace they could of the Doctor.

But they knew he'd been transported elsewhere in time and space using a technology they'd never seen before. So they couldn't trace it.

Then they get an inspired idea.

They can't trace what took the Doctor, but maybe they can trace  _him_. They reason that if a stabilized exploding star, held in the second just before it collapses, can create a web of time, that they should be able to use a similar trick to map a timeline for one particular person.

("They destroyed a star?!" the Doctor shouts.

"Oh, no," Davros replies. "I believe they tried to destroy your TARDIS."

The Doctor freaks at this. Apparently, Jenny and Seo didn't realize that blowing up a TARDIS could potentially unwrite the universe. Good thing they avoided that!)

Actually, what they do is very clever.

They notice that the TARDIS, upon self-destructing, will loop the inside time continuum, to stop the calamity. They rig that feature up so it acts as a full-scale time reversal feed — which they can do by fueling it with power from the explosion that won't happen, creating a paradox that'll vault them even further away from the incident.

The TARDIS is linked to the Doctor; therefore, capturing it in a specific way in a specific location in the universe will allow them to view his time stream at that point — like a map.

They did this to find out where and when he was. They gathered that he'd been whisked away to the Medusa Cascade, and they sent the TARDIS off to that spot.

.

"They tracked down the wrong me," the Doctor says.

"Yes," Davros agrees. "Amidst all that chaos and time, nearly blowing up and destroying the universe… you can't blame your TARDIS for being a little… confused."

No, of course not.

Only natural.

"They thought that you'd been kidnapped by the Daleks," Davros says. "They never thought that, by saving someone from certain death… they'd be dooming you to die."

.

We cut to the past, where Jenny and Seo land the TARDIS on the crucible, shortly after the 10th Doctor's TARDIS has dematerialized. Davros is being consumed by the flames, his face and flesh scorched beyond recognition.

Jenny and Seo emerge from the TARDIS, and run through the flames.

"There! I see someone!" Jenny cries, extinguishing the flames around Davros.

"He's hurt!" Seo says, checking him over. "Jenny, he doesn't have any regenerations left! If he dies… that's it!"

They take Davros back into the TARDIS, and launch it, getting away from the flames. The TARDIS, however, senses that Davros is inside, and does a nosedive. It crash-lands into a nearby planet, very violently.

Seo and Jenny try their hardest to revive Davros, still thinking he's the Doctor, but they're losing him quickly.

"Who knows how long the Daleks had him, before we arrived!" Jenny says. "I think they did something to him." She shows Seo a scan she ran.

"They tried to turn him into a Dalek," Seo realizes, understanding the scan. She points at his chest. "His whole chest is just… a mess! Like someone peeled away the skin and most of the organs!"

It's such a mess that they can't tell that Davros has only one heart.

They do, however, figure out how to create another life-support chair for Davros. They figure that by adapting Dalek technology and melding it with Time Lord technology, they can reverse what the Daleks did and make the Doctor himself, again.

Thus, they created a life-support chair with substantial regenerative abilities.

.

"And when you'd regenerated enough," the Doctor guessed, "they began to realize their mistake. So you had to 'persuade' them."

"Yes," says Davros.

.

Cut to the past, where we see Davros operating on Jenny and Seo, by cutting into their brains. They are screaming on an operating table, but restrained.

.

"When they recovered from the operation, they became good little girls, again," Davros continues. He gestures around himself. "They were extremely helpful. I couldn't have done any of this without them."

"Let me guess," the Doctor says. "Daleks with horns!" Before Davros can speak, the Doctor cuts in, "No, no! I got it! Dyslexic Daleks, that call themselves Dakels! Or… oh, don't tell me you made Daleks out of chocolate? That'd be brilliant!"

"I did not make Daleks!"

The Doctor laughs, hysterically. "Oh, come off it, Davros! You always make Daleks! You might call them something a bit different… but in the end, they've all got the same bumps."

Davros fumes.

"I admit, I did seek out the Daleks, at first," says Davros. "But they were weak. They were corrupted! They were…!"

The Doctor laughs even harder. "The Daleks from the progeniture machine!" he realizes. "They rejected you! Just the same way they rejected the Daleks you made from your own cells."

"I did not need them, anymore," Davros replies. "I took control of your TARDIS. And found this place. Its species a primitive and miserable bunch. With the help of these two lovely children, I turned that species into something… better."

The Doctor's laughter dries up. "What have you done?"

.

Davros created both a race and an entire society, with help from Jenny and Seo. He convinced them that they were helping the native life forms on the planet, creating a technology that could help them ward off the Dalek aggressors who were soon to return.

Davros soon discovered that Seo and Jenny may be very smart individually. But together, they're absolutely astonishing. More brilliant than anyone.

("Even me, Doctor," says Davros. "Even you.")

When Seo and Jenny started creating amazing things, Davros operated on them a second time, to boost their combined intellectual capacity.

Seo and Jenny constructed an entire civilization, full of technological marvels that not even the Doctor had seen before, in only a few months.

.

"But that level of mental activity would burn them out!" the Doctor snaps. "They'll die."

"Yes," says Davros. "After a year. But there's always another regeneration. Another year. And another. And another."

The Doctor grows even angrier. "I won't let you murder them, Davros!"

Davros continues with the story.

.

Seo and Jenny were thinking so hard, they started to pass out. In desperation, they'd shut part of their minds down, to stop themselves from burning out.

That's when they finally saw past Davros' deceptions.

They realized that they were torturing innocent creatures and turning them into monsters. Then building horrible technology for a man who definitely wasn't the Doctor.

"Don't let on that we know," Jenny says. "We play along. But, when he's not looking…"

"…we turn the whole operation against him," Seo agrees. "Then fight back, when we know we can win."

.

Now…

"Judging by the state of the place," the Doctor comments, looking around himself, "they almost succeeded."

"Almost," Davros agrees.

.

When Davros overpowered them, he knocked them out cold.

He then placed them both in a kind of telepathic, aerated green water, in which they wouldn't be able to stop Davros' mental conditioning or prevent the exchange of ideas. There, they remain — still bouncing ideas off one another, still brilliant, still helping to create a new race for Davros — but unable to escape.

The telepathic water is used to control and influence their thoughts, too — although, as Davros points out, this isn't hard. No matter what's on the surface, deep down inside, they are the Weapon and the Soldier. Both are created for war and death — it's the core of who they are.

.

"They were the ones who brought you here," Davros finishes. "A teleport able to break right into the TARDIS and pluck you out. Leaving no trace."

Thus, Davros finishes his gloat, and finishes his story.

.

The Doctor escapes Davros, before Davros can kill him. Then he runs.

"But you two aren't just going to give in, now that I'm around," the Doctor knows, thinking back to Seo and Jenny. "Even if he's changed around your minds… you'll know the truth, now. You'll be able to resist."

And, yes, he's right!

Seo and Jenny are fighting back more than Davros thinks. And have been for some time!

The Doctor discovers this when he realizes that Seo and Jenny have built in a self-destruct function into all the technology, built around a central hub point. And the code to that central hub point is a number that the Doctor knows from their travels together.

The Doctor topples Davros' war machine and frees Jenny and Seo.

Just when the Doctor thinks everything is all resolved and settled, the Daleks attack. Turns out, they had some angle on this operation as well, and have been manipulating things for their own personal gain. There is a plot twist in here, and everything gets turned on its head before the Doctor et all can figure it out. Probably, they will wind up having to deal with the Daleks by using Davros, who has been manipulated.

Anyways.

In the end, it's Jenny who wipes out Davros' new race. She knows that they will rise up and terrorize the universe, and that she, as their creator, has a duty to destroy them. Seo tries to stop her, claiming it's genocide and they have to change these people and teach them better ways, but it's too late.

The Doctor finds out, and is furious at them for committing genocide. He assumes it's Jenny behind it, and mutters about her still being just a soldier at heart. But when he checks the evidence on hand, he discovers that it's Seo.

Turns out, Seo has rigged the evidence to prove that she was the one who did the deed, and Jenny had nothing to do with it.

Jenny asks Seo why she did it.

Seo explains that "Even if Father hates me, I've got a mom who loves me and will understand." She gestures at Jenny. "You've only got him."

The Doctor drops Seo off with her mom, at the end of this. He mentions that if she's committing genocide, she can't travel with him anymore — and her mom will punish her severely for this.

After Seo leaves, the Doctor drops off Jenny somewhere else. He mentions to Jenny that he's pretty sure Jenny was the one responsible for the genocide, and Seo took the blame, but he can't prove it.

He tells Jenny, just before he leaves, that she should remember this forever more:

"She's more human than you," the Doctor says. "And that means she'll always be more prone to mistakes, to violent outbursts, to passions of love and rage, to acting stupid even when she knows it's stupid… and perhaps even means she'll never be quite as clever and sneaky as you are, Jenny." He looks into her eyes. "But it's her humanity that will save you, Jenny. It's saved you now, and it'll save you again. Every time."


	5. Seo and Jenny visit Gallifrey

 

* * *

_I actually started writing this story, before I decided not to write the rest. I'll put some of the snippets I wrote into this summary. The parts written in past tense are parts of the actual story, already written._

_By this point, I wanted Dawn to be married and expecting a child. I was planning to write another story, which came before this one, which explained all this._

_Dawn winds up with three children: Joy, the eldest, is a girl who is named after Joyce; Nate is named after Dawn's husband's father; and Will is named after Donna's grandfather Wilf, because Donna has helped them out so much over the years._

_Dawn is currently pregnant with Will, in this story._

_It's a little long, so I'm splitting this up between several chapters._

* * *

In the light of the setting suns, the silhouette of two Time Lords appeared in shadow, above the landscape. Looking through the window of the Capital, out at the red grass and silver trees of their home.

One sighed.

"So that's it, then," she said. Her voice flat. Emotionless. "It's over. The crack has been sealed, all links to the Doctor severed. And this planet… will remain where it is."

The Time Lord beside her said nothing.

His hands clasped behind his back, his stare steady out the window.

"It feels odd, doesn't it, Braxiatel?" said the Time Lady, stealing a glance at her companion. "After standing here, every day, seeing that tear in reality, and waiting and hoping and praying he would get the message… now, it's over. All over."

Still, Braxiatel said nothing.

"Silent, are we?" the Time Lady asked.

"You know my views on the matter, my Lady Romana," Braxiatel replied.

Romana, with a small laugh, "Yes, well. You did make them clear on one or two occasions."

"Gallifrey faces the biggest crisis in its history," Braxiatel replied. "I fail to see how a plan to shunt the planet several universes to the left would solve any of that. If you ask me, this rather pointless scheme was a waste of time, money, and resources — and it should have ended centuries ago."

"You're very quick to dismiss the technological innovation and progress we used to create all this," Romana replied.

Braxiatel flicked his eyes over to her. "The riots in Southern Gallifrey," he reminded her, softly. "That unpleasantness to the east, several days ago. The Victor's cult growing ever stronger, in the outlands. Not to mention—"

"Yes, I am aware of current events," Romana replied. Looking back out the window, again. No longer able to meet his eyes.

They said nothing.

Reflecting on the planet below.

"These are dark days for Gallifrey," Romana admitted. "But it will get better." She looked out at where their pathway to Trenzalore had once been. Her hope waning with the setting suns. "Somehow."

A faint smile appeared on Braxiatel's face. "Yes, well," he muttered. "We all have our own sources of hope."

This made Romana laugh out loud. "And you're still hoping for your… mystery hero, then?" she asked. Thinking back to what he'd told her, and listing it out on her fingers. "A pure blood Gallifreyan. Born after the war, free from both its atrocities and its memories. But not born on Gallifrey. A hero. An outsider. A traveler. But still accepted, here, as one of us."

Braxiatel said nothing.

The smile didn't fade.

"You'll be waiting a long time before that happens, Braxiatel," Romana told him. Turning, and heading back to her quarters. "With Gallifrey the way it is, now, I'd say it'll be at least three millennia before any Time Lord is born off-world."

The door closed behind her.

Leaving Braxiatel alone.

That same faint smile on his face, as the last embers of the suns set beneath the horizon.

"If you say so," Braxiatel replied.

* * *

"I found it!" Jenny cried, thrusting something in front of Seo.

They were on Earth. In front of Buffy's house. In the midst of a starless night.

Seo blinked. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, as she took the device and struggled to get her brain working, again, long enough to work out what she was seeing.

"You found… a planet," Seo muttered. She sighed, handing back the device. "Tell me again why this couldn't wait until morning?"

"It is morning," Jenny replied. "Three in the morning. Are you really human enough that you sleep that long?"

Seo figured that wasn't worth dignifying with an answer.

"And besides," said Jenny. "I didn't find a planet. I found the planet."

"You found…?" Seo was wide awake, suddenly. "You're kidding!"

"Nope; I got the readings a while ago," Jenny explained, tweaking a few settings on her gizmo. "But couldn't make heads nor tails of them. And there was no getting past that blockade — especially not after the Daleks started storming all the other ships and blasting their way through."

"So the secret really was somewhere on that… Tents Galore planet?" Seo said.

Jenny shot her a pointed look. "Trenzalore, Seo. It's called 'Trenzalore'."

Jenny had been trying to get down to the surface of Trenzalore for years, now. Constantly hopping back and forth in time, trying to find a weak-point in the blockade.

But she'd never actually managed to break through.

"It was Donna Noble who figured out the answer, actually," Jenny explained. "I came to get some help from Ace, and we had all these equations and things spread out on numerous chalk-boards. Unable to work them out. Then Donna turned up and wrote down the answer — said it just 'popped into her head'." She flipped something around in her gizmo. "Your aunt's doing fine, by the way. Considering she's blowing up like an inflated beach ball. Is that really how humans have babies?"

Seo tucked back her hair. "When they're not flown by stork," she said. She tried to sneak another peek at Jenny's device. "Don't suppose you've got my aunt stashed away in that ship of yours? Because there's no way we'll be able to leave the universe without her."

"No need!" Jenny held out two small, silver rings. "She gave me these. Said she'd had a premonition that they'd help. Besides — with two small kids and another on the way, she didn't seem enthusiastic about inter-universal adventuring."

Seo took one of the rings.

Slipped it on her finger.

There was a pleasant hum about it. Something familiar. Something that reminded her, distinctly, of her aunt.

"Now, quit dawdling, and come on!" Jenny said, grabbing Seo by the arm and dragging her behind, as she launched them both towards her ship. "It's time to do what we always planned! Time for me to meet the Time Lords, and you to rescue that weapon!"

* * *

"Yes, I am aware it's past three bells, Chancellor," Romana said, striding into the room, her robes flowing around her. "I'm sure you can imagine that, with the Rani's latest trial, I have my hands full at the moment. Where is Lord Rassilon?"

"In Southern Gallifrey, my Lady," the Chancellor replied. "It seems the riots are slightly harder to quell than we initially thought. He's sent a request for full military deployment."

Romana sighed. "Should have guessed our Supreme Leader would handle this with his usual… 'lightness of touch.'"

"My Lady Romana," said the Chancellor, a little uneasily. "The Great Lord Rassilon has no power in the government, anymore. He's hardly our Supreme…"

"Braxiatel once told me," Romana cut in, "that clever Time Lords go into politics, to fix society. But the cleverest Time Lords remain behind the scenes — controlling it."

The Chancellor looked like he was going to protest.

But Romana cut him off.

"Oh, do get on with it, Chancellor Halswin," Romana said. "I haven't got all day. What's so urgent that it couldn't wait for your Supreme Leader to return?"

"The… transduction barrier," said the Chancellor. "It's… been breached, my Lady."

Romana froze.

Hearts leaping into her throat.

"You don't mean…!" She stood up, suddenly. A thousand plans flitting through her head. "The regenerations never reached the Doctor. The Daleks are coming through. We're back to where we were before."

"No, my Lady," the Chancellor assured her. "That's not it at all. Just… an alien. Humanoid. Wandering around the Capital, somewhere. I'd assume it's one of the neighboring species in this new universe. Possibly even one the CIA has catalogued."

Romana paused. "I… see." Thought a moment longer. The implications of this were all terribly worrying. "And what does President Ulpasatonipson say about this? No — wait. I can guess. You didn't ask him."

The Chancellor looked a little sheepish.

"I have no wish to act as president, again, Chancellor Halswin," Romana told him. And she somehow doubted Rassilon would let her get anywhere near the presidency if she tried. "Go to the Lord President. Or the CIA Coordinator." She headed back out the door. "I'm sure either of them would be happy to handle both the diplomatic and safety issues inherent in this problem."

"At least give your advice, then!" said the Chancellor.

Romana paused. Yes, of course he'd want her advice. Everyone did, these days. And with Rassilon tied up in Southern Gallifrey, it was doubtful President Ulpasatonipson would have the first idea how to deal with an issue like this.

Everyone knew the Presidency of Gallifrey was little more than a joke, these days.

"Oh, all right." Romana turned back to face the Chancellor. "Round up the Chancellery Guard, and track down the alien for interrogation. Then examine the transduction barrier controls and see how they were breached. And inform the CIA — if they don't already know."

The Chancellor stood up, and bowed. "As you wish, Lady Romana."

Then began to race off.

"I never said I wished, I only…!" Romana sighed, as he trailed out of sight. "What's the use?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't get around to writing the next few scenes, so I'm back to summary. I wrote most of the scene between Seo and the Moment, so I'll include that.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

The Chancellory guard discover Jenny, who is exploring and trying to learn about Gallifrey and to fit in.

Meanwhile, Seo heads off to the armory.  
Seo quickly accesses what she thinks of as the equivalent of a computer terminal, even though there's something different about it. She finds the access codes for their armory and how to change them, so she changes the codes, wipes her trail, and heads off.

Her goal? Well, as far as Seo is concerned, the Moment's been imprisoned unfairly for centuries.

"Therefore," Seo decides, "it's my job to stage a prison-break."

...

Seo is surprised that the first door to the armory opens very easily with her new code. Funny thing is… the doors seem to be opening even before she finishes typing the code.

"Hasn't anyone on this planet ever heard of security?" Seo asks, as she breezes into the armory. "You'd think that if they had an all-powerful super-weapon in here, they'd at least remember to lock the doors!"

When Seo opens her first door to the armory, alarms sound everywhere.

Time Lords panic.

"Why isn't this impossible?!" Romana demands of the head of the Chancellory Guard. "You told me that the locks would automatically detect the DE imprint of whomever was using them, then request confirmation from both the President and the Chancellor, before allowing entry! But here… no checks! No scans! Whoever this is, she's just walking right in."

The Captain of the Chancellory Guard is perplexed.

"My Lady Romana," he says, flustered. "I don't understand it. I programmed the security myself — it should be impossible."

"Unless, of course, someone wanted full access without anyone knowing he had that kind of access," Braxiatel adds, entering the room. "Someone who could bypass all the codes. Someone like…"

"Rassilon," Romana spits out. She says the name like it's a curse. "Without telling anyone, behind our backs, Rassilon's created a master-key. Which has now been stolen. Oh, that's just brilliant!"

She turns to the Chancellory Guard.

"Is that alien in our custody, yet?" Romana demands.

The Chancellory Guard confirm this.

"Then I'd say she has some explaining to do," says Romana, storming off. "Because whatever is going on in our vault, I'd say that alien is in it up to her neck!"

Braxiatel stops her.

"A word, if I may," Braxiatel requests. "My Lady?"

...

Meanwhile, the Time Lords take Jenny into custody. They demand to know what she and her accomplice are doing here. Who they are and what they want with Gallifrey.

...

Seo is pursued by a group of armed Time Lords, but they can't get into the armory, and — according to them — the Matrix has locked them out of accessing the correct codes.

Once again, Romana is perplexed. And so is Braxiatel, this time.

"Not even Rassilon's master-key would be able to scramble the Matrix," Romana says. "How can something like this be happening?!"

...

Seo, meanwhile, enters the vault.

"Hello?" Seo called out, cautiously.

She crept forwards, peering through the empty darkness, trying to see through the folding and expanding dimensional space.

"You're not a Time Lord," said a voice right behind her.

Seo jumped, spun around.

There, she found a little girl with blonde hair and bright eyes. She held a little stuffed bunny in one hand, and her hair was braided into pigtails.

"Who are…?" Seo started, without thinking. Then her brain caught up with her, and she figured it out. "Oh!" Looked the child up and down. "I thought you were supposed to look like Rose Tyler."

The little girl shrugged. "Chiara Sompters," she said. Gestured down at her own body. "Someday, she'll be more important to you than anything else." She stared into Seo's eyes, with a deep and piercing stare. "How did you make it down here?"

"Easily," Seo said.

"Too easily," said the Moment. She crossed her arms. "Only a handful of people have ever broken into this vault. Of those, only one has broken through enough codes and bypassed enough locks to get deep enough to steal me." She gave a half-smile. "That person isn't you."

"Not my fault if someone left all the doors open," Seo said, with a shrug. "Saves me the effort of breaking all those codes and things, myself."

This made the Moment suddenly intrigued. Her whole face lighting up, as she studied Seo.

"I've never thought of that, before," said the Moment.

"What?"

"How a Key," said the Moment, "sees a lock."

Seo frowned. "You know who I am?"

"I can see everything you are… Key, Cyberplanner, exiled divinity," said the Moment. "Your past and your future." She tried to open a swirling portal. "Let me show you your future — the consequences of your actions, and the—"

Seo groaned. Backed away, waving her arms. "Oh, please don't!" she insisted. "Thanks to my tenth incarnation, I've seen more than I ever wanted to!"

The Moment considered this. Then, in a low voice, "You do want to see this. Trust me."

"Tell you what? My future is boring," Seo said. "Show me yours!"

The Moment stumbled backwards. "My future?"

"Haven't you looked?" Seo asked. "Don't you care what happens to you, in the future? You're sentient. Friendly! Don't you think you deserve better than this?"

The Moment remained silent a long time.

Too long.

She had seen into her own future. She'd seen all the possibilities — so many of them endless stretches of eternity spent locked in a cold, sealed vault. Only visited occasionally by Time Lords trying to use her to see or manipulate their own futures. And most of those were Rassilon.

"I'm like you," Seo explained, reaching out to her. "I know how it feels, having everyone be scared of you! Having everyone want you to do something evil, without asking you, first! It's a miserable life." She gave a gentle smile. "I'm here to give you a better one."

The Moment didn't take Seo's hands.

She was sullen and silent.

"Just come with me," Seo urged her. "Escape with me. I'll find a way to allow you to move on your own. Stop you exploding. You can just be a person, like me!"

The Moment met Seo's eyes, evenly. Didn't blink once.

"I destroyed the Time Lords once before," the Moment reminded Seo. "Just because it's now never happened doesn't mean I didn't do it."

Seo waved this away. "Mass genocide, destroying the universe, tearing down the walls of reality so a bunch of demons turn up… we all do it, sometime. No biggee."

"If I escaped," the Moment continued, "I could threaten something you care about. Like… the Earth. Or Jenny."

Seo froze.

"After all," said the Moment. "You didn't come to Gallifrey to rescue me. Not really. You came because she wanted to. And you wanted to do something for her."

Seo hesitated a second too long.

"I'm also here to help  _you_!" Seo insisted.

The Moment shook her head, her image rippling a little. "You came all this way. Risked everything. Nearly destroyed yourself. And all just to give your sister the chance to find her own people. The people that won't accept her."

"They will!" Seo insisted.

The Moment created a portal in the air, which solidified and showed Jenny, locked up and interrogated by Time Lords.

They called her 'alien'.

"She was not born on Gallifrey," the Moment replied. Giving a shrug, as she paced, again, in front of Seo. "Born a soldier, yes — as were many others here — but for the wrong war. Her upbringing was unconventional. Her attitude more akin to a renegade than anyone they'd embrace. Why should they ever accept her?"

Seo didn't know the answer to this question.

The Moment had expected that.

"The Time Lords will never allow me to leave this place," the Moment said, sadly, but not unkindly. "They're terrified of me. If you let me out… your sister will pay the price."

Seo's hearts sunk.

"And you'd never do that," the Moment whispered.

Seo shook her head. "There has to be some way to get you out of here!" she said. "Some way to get the Time Lords to like Jenny! There just… has to!"

"There's no way out for me," said the Moment. Then, with a sly smile, added, "But I can see a way for your sister to be accepted, here."

Seo asks the Moment what it is, and the Moment shows Seo a secret back entrance to the armory and tells her to, "Go to the lower vaults."

Seo is about to leave and go rescue her sister, but the Moment stops her.

Asks Seo if this is really what she wants, and if she's willing to pay the price to get it.

"Whatever the price," says Seo, "for Jenny… I'll pay it."

She heads off.

"And I'll be back to rescue you, too!" Seo insists. "Just you wait and see!"

As Seo runs off, the Moment warns her that "if you rescue me, you'll have to sacrifice someone you love."

It's not clear that Seo hears her.


	7. Chapter 7

Leaving the armory, Seo comes face-to-face with Gallifreyan guards, who arrest her and escort her through the capital. She manages to distract them, however, then slam the door to seal most of them away from her. She fights hand-to-hand and knocks out the rest, then races down to the lower vaults.

The Time Lords can't track her, as she doesn't appear on scans.

They try to lock down the capital, so that they can use the retina scan doors to either trap Seo or to figure out where she's going (if she manages to hack them). But instead, when they arrive where Seo's been "trapped", they find that Seo's forced the doors open.

When Seo is deep in the lower vaults, she stumbles across something that looks like a hypercube. Picks it up, and it's glowing and bright, like it's got something inside it. But it doesn't act like a hypercube, because there's no telepathic message.

At first, Seo is confused.

"What looks like a hypercube, but isn't one?" Seo asks herself.

Then she drops the cube, in sudden horror.

As she remembers what she knows of the events in "Paradox", and realizes that she knows exactly what that thing really is.

That's when the Time Lord guards finally find her.

Seo gets chased, but at the same time, she's thinking this through. When she'd picked up that cube, she could tell that it already contained a Time Lord soul. That was probably the only reason it hadn't sucked out her soul when she touched it — the cube was already full.

But if someone found the cube before her, and touched it — that means somewhere on Gallifrey, there's a Dalek in a Time Lord body.

There's a traitor on Gallifrey, and no one else knows about it.

The Chancellory guard chase her into a side room, and corner her. They insist she comes with them.

"There's nowhere left to run," they remind Seo.

Seo glances over, sees a door that nobody else seems to have noticed. She beams. "Except through the back door!"

Then she spins around, races towards it, and leaps through it.

The guards freak out.

Because that "door" wasn't a real door at all — it was a Matrix door, and one that can only be accessed by the President of Gallifrey.

But Seo just passed right through it!

...

"Call off the search!" Jenny cried. "She's not a criminal, she's my sister!"

"She somehow broke into one of the most secure vaults on Gallifrey," said the Castellan, "on a mission to — by your own admission — steal one of the most dangerous weapons we have on hand, and remove it from Gallifrey."

"But she did nothing," Jenny retorted.

"We only have your word for that," said Coordinator Landax.

Jenny turned on him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It strikes me that you two have been extremely well briefed for this mission," said the Coordinator. "You arrive here, from another universe, in a way not even we can discover. You two claim never to have been here before — yet you know our customs…"

"And your sister knew the codes to get into the inner vaults," the Castellan continued, "knew the Moment was stored there, and now seems to be displaying an intimate knowledge of the lower foundations."

Jenny hesitated.

"I can't understand my sister," Jenny admitted. "But the reason I know so much is because I've done a lot of research on Gallifrey. I thought you were all dead, so I learned what I could out of respect, to keep your memory and traditions alive."

All stasers came out at once.

"Dalek infiltrator?" The Coordinator asked.

"Highly likely," said the Castellan, pulling the trigger.

A hand grabbed the Castellan's arm, making the shot go wide. A lean, tall man with dark hair stood in Gallifreyan robes, his eyes fixed on Jenny. No one had heard him arrive.

"I do believe that might be a little presumptuous," said the man, fishing a paper out of his robes and handing it to the Castellan. "Given the circumstances."

The Castellan stared at the note.

The Coordinator didn't lower his staser. "Cardinal Braxiatel, you have no right to stop—"

"I'm afraid he does," said the Castellan, showing the note to the Coordinator. "It's from the President."

The two looked the note over.

Then looked back up at Braxiatel.

"The President agreed that the facts were indisputable," Braxiatel said. He gestured at Jenny. "Her biodata confirms her identity. We have detected no trace of Dalek elements so far in her physiology. And — having been to the planet Messaline myself to acquire some rather exquisite sculptures — I can verify that her story, as much as we've heard of it, is true."

The Coordinator seethed.

"I am only repeating what the President told me," Braxiatel insisted, calmly. "Nothing more."

"And I suppose you had nothing to do with the decision yourself," the Castellan muttered.

Braxiatel held up his hands. "Heaven forefend!"

The Coordinator saw through it in an instant. Grabbed up the note and crinkled it into a ball. "I don't care if she is or isn't a Dalek agent," said the Coordinator. "She's an outsider, and that's just as dangerous!"

"The public sees the Doctor as a great hero," Braxiatel replied. "The President believes it would be unwise to—"

"The President — or  _you_ , Braxiatel?" The Coordinator snapped. Advancing on Braxiatel, glaring. "Oh, you may have caught the public eye with your lapdog Romana and her pet projects — but you don't know what you're asking us to risk. You didn't spend your lives fighting the Daleks!"

Braxiatel's face darkened. "I did fight in the War."

"Eventually," the Castellan muttered.

"And I had my reasons," Braxiatel said, sweeping over towards Jenny. "But as none of them concern this young lady over here, I believe we would be remiss towards our guest if I went into the details yet again."

The Castellan gave it up, and turned to leave — presumably to the President, to question Braxiatel's wisdom.

The Coordinator lingered a moment longer, to remind Braxiatel that, "I watched Arcadia fall — you didn't. I won't let that happen, again."

Then he left, too.

"Oh, but you are letting it happen, Coordinator," Braxiatel muttered, eyes still fixed on the door. "You already are."

Jenny was still a little disorientated by everything that had just happened.

"Who… who are…?" Jenny asked.

Braxiatel turned to her.

His eyes lighting up, all at once.

"So... you're the one," he said, examining her, curiously. "Yes, I can see the resemblance. Quite remarkable."

"Who are you?" Jenny said. "Why did you save my life?"

"Well, I could scarcely sit by and watch them shoot you down in cold blood," said Braxiatel, pulling up a chair to sit opposite Jenny. He stared at her a few moments longer. Studying her, like a connoisseur studying an artistic masterpiece. "Incredible. A Gallifreyan… born outside of Gallifrey. And, even more incredibly — a Lungbarrow. Like myself."

"A what?"

Braxiatel explains to Jenny that she is a member of his family. The Lungbarrow family.

Romana bursts into the room which holds Jenny and Braxiatel. Romana is absolutely furious. She demands a full biodata extract be taken of Jenny, immediately, and commands Braxiatel to stay very far away from her.

It's clear that Braxiatel and Romana had, previously, spoken about Jenny, and that Romana had gotten Braxiatel his audience with the President, leading to her pardon. However, Romana has also clearly seen something that's changed her mind.

Braxiatel tries to insist that this isn't necessary — "You can see she's a Lungbarrow. This is a family affair. That is all."

"Not anymore," Romana says.

She waves for a robot to enter, and it carries in the Ma'erissa, still glowing. Raises it up to show to all.

Everyone in the room starts backwards, immediately.

Recognizing it.

(The one we saw in Paradox was a prototype. This is a Type 4, and no longer requires a name on the outside. The real personality is eased into place over a foreign interior, so that while Daleks are stringing them around like puppets, the Time Lord appears to be normal.)

"The Chancellory Guard found this in the lower vaults," Romana says. "It's been activated. Someone on Gallifrey has been taken over, and is working for the Daleks. And since it's very likely that someone is this person's sister… I think a DE scan is well overdue."

Jenny's biodata is extracted and compared to the Doctor's DE. It's pretty obvious, when this happens, that Jenny is telling the truth.

Moreover, the biodata extract tells that Jenny is a perfectly formed Gallifreyan.

Too perfect for any human-created progenation machine to have created, on its own.

(Romana figures out through the DE that Jenny hadn't been perfectly formed, when she was first "born". But that something had been planted inside the Source that would not just terraform the planet — but change the cells in Jenny's body so that she'd become a perfect Gallifreyan. This is why she wakes up, when the Source activates — the second the Doctor leaves, and time has a chance to realize Gallifrey's still around.)

This makes Romana suspicious — in a very different way. "An outsider," says Romana, "born outside of Gallifrey, but a perfect Gallifreyan. Born after the War — but the Doctor's daughter, so a natural hero to the people."

She turns to Braxiatel.

"If I didn't know you better, Braxiatel," Romana says, "I'd call this an astounding coincidence."

"I haven't the first idea what you mean," Braxiatel replies.

(Since Braxiatel has admitted that he's visited Messaline, Romana has worked out that Braxiatel himself probably helped create the Source, and altered it so that it would make Jenny a perfect Gallifreyan. He did this by communicating with one of his future selves, in typical Braxiatel fashion.)

Anyways.

Romana demands to know who Seo is and what's going on.

...

Seo slams the door behind her, and locks it. Then barricades it.

She looks around. Doesn't know where she is, but it looks like a long corridor. She keeps running, but gets the weird impression that something's wrong, here. Seo wonders if the Time Lords have chased her into a trap, and starts getting a little nervous.

Then resolves that she can't get nervous. If they've locked her into a trap, she'll just have to be more clever than them. Use their own trap against them.

She tries to get a better idea of where she is, and discovers all kinds of Time Lord secrets just lying around behind unlocked doors. Some of the doors lead to meadows and fields, others to Gallifrey's past, others to distant worlds, others to forbidden secrets.

Seo wonders why these Time Lords aren't locking up their secrets better! It seems very weird.

It all seems very weird.

Seo starts to wonder just where exactly she is. And how, exactly, she got there.

...

The President is summoned, but they all soon find that the Matrix has locked them all out. As if it's been barricaded against anyone else entering.

They find a way to track the data stream flowing out of the Matrix, but they can't enter it themselves or alter it in any way.

Their accessing the Matrix, however, winds up sending everyone into a panic. No one's sure how or why, but somehow, Seo's managed to get inside the Matrix, gain access to every scrap of data in there, unlock every door and every partition, and even change things at her own whim. This should be utterly impossible.

(Braxiatel must mention, somewhere, that it's peculiar that the Matrix seems to recognize Seo — as if she's been here before. Except that she hasn't.)

They demand to know, from Jenny, how Seo's doing this. Jenny isn't sure, but has a hunch based on what she learned about Gallifrey from her father and other sources.

"Tell me about the Key of Rassilon," Jenny asks.

The Time Lords explain it to her. The Key of Rassilon is the only way to gain full control of the Matrix, and since the Matrix is the computer system that controls everything on Gallifrey, it gives complete control of Gallifrey, as well.

"And it's a bit dimensional?" Jenny guesses.

"More than a bit," Romana replies.

"An incredible feat of multidimensional and trans-temporal engineering," Braxiatel confirms. "The Great Key is one of the most powerful items in the panopticon."

Jenny takes in a sharp breath.

Knows exactly what's going on, suddenly.

"Seo's also known as 'the Key'," Jenny explains. "She can act as, essentially, a master-key to fit in any dimensional lock. That means… she doesn't need the Key of Rassilon to take control of the Matrix. She can use herself!"

The Time Lords are all very alarmed at this.

They start to think that this is a trap or an invasion.

"No, wait!" Jenny says. "Look at what she's doing in there! Does it look like she has a plan? Or does it look like she's stumbled in and now has no idea where she is, or how to get out?"

It does look like Seo is lost in there.

The changes to the Matrix appear to be random.

The Time Lords decide they need to track Seo down and get her out of there as soon as possible. They decide to construct a scoop, based on biodata prints from the Doctor, Jenny, and anything they have on record that's a match for Seo, so they can physically extract her from the Matrix.

They all race off to do so.

Jenny proposes a simpler solution.

She asks if there's any way to get a message to Seo, inside the Matrix.


	8. Chapter 8

Seo, meanwhile, is hopelessly lost.

And hopelessly confused.

She races through landscapes and doors and things, trying to find at least a door that'll lead to the outside.  But no matter how much she unlocks or throws around or changes, everything seems strange and bizarre and weird.

"I am Pandax I," says one specter, approaching her.  "Cease causing this chaos."

"Anthrax the first?" Seo asks, looking at him, confused.  "You look more like Nearly Headless Nick to me."

Poof!

Pandax I, deceased president of Gallifrey, has now turned into Nearly Headless Nick!

"Ack!" Seo cries, backing away.  As the hallway and environment around her starts to morph into a scene from Harry Potter.  She spins around and runs, trying to find a way out of there.  Flings a door open, shouting, "I'm not in Harry Potter!  I'm... nowhere!"

The door opens to complete whiteness.

Seo looks around, freaking out.  Even the door behind her is gone.  "No, it's just my eyes, not able to see through the light," Seo decides.  Closes her eyes.  "If I just open them, again, I'll be able to see..."

She opens her eyes.

Finds herself in a theater, watching "End Game" by Samuel Beckett — which is a play that involves people popping out of trash cans and a man getting wheeled around in a wheel chair.

"Samuel Beckett?!" Seo complains.

A bunch of rhinos storm the stage.  Two tramps enter, one dragging the other by a rope.  Then a lady and her husband appear, arguing about a son that doesn’t really exist.

“I’d say this was absurd,” Seo says, backing away.  “But I’m afraid that’s too literal even for me.”

“Not literal, literary,” says a man behind her, and she spins around.

Finds Rupert Giles handing her a book, in the middle of a large library.

“Just avoid the Pandora section of the library,” Giles explains to her, handing her the book — which looks exactly like the one he gives Buffy in the first Buffy episode, except it’s titled ‘Time Lords’.  “Dark partition.  Very dangerous.”

“What are you doing here?!” Seo cries.  “I thought I was on Gallifrey.”

A wind blows, and all the books turn into sand — as does Giles.  The view looks exactly like the one that Seo first saw, back when she and Jenny had first landed on Gallifrey.

Seo freaks, turning this way and that.

“Please, you must take the book,” Giles insists, again.  Handing it to her.  “We are all Time Lords.  You must stop changing us.”

“You’re not a Time Lord!  You’re Giles!  You’re human!” Seo shouts.  “I don’t understand!”

“Seo!” comes Jenny’s voice.

Seo spins around, but can’t see Jenny anywhere.  All she can hear is Jenny’s voice.

“Jenny?”  Seo shakes her head.  “Don’t tell me you’re caught in this mess, too!  What is this?  Some interrogation unit?  A trick?  A prison?”

“You’re in the Matrix,” Jenny’s voice explains.  “Stuck in a computer simulation!”

“Matrix?!” Seo cries.  “What, you mean like with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss and that bloke who wound up on CSI?”

All around Seo, the landscape shifts into a Matrix-style Chicago simulation, complete with Agent Smiths saying, “Mr. Anderson!” and ghostly dreadlocked hippies and machines who look like gigantic metal squid.

Seo winds up getting chased up a flight of steps in a creepy building, only just barely missing barrages from an insane number of semi-automatic weapons that seemed to be fired at random.  Also, there’s way too much leather and Seo has no idea why people are wearing sunglasses when it’s night out.

“No!  And stop doing that!” Jenny shouts, through the air.  Seo still can’t see her.  “Everyone out here is going mad.  You’ve invaded the Time Lords’ central computer system, and wound up getting yourself tangled right into its inner workings.  Worst of all, you’re the Key — so somehow, you’re able to change the environment and everyone inside of it.  Including all the memories of dead Time Lords who ever existed on Gallifrey!”

“Whoa,” says Neo, emerging.  He looks at his hands.  “This isn’t right.  I’m supposed to be a Time Lord.  Not… this…”  He looks around himself, again.  “Whoa.  What’s happened to the Matrix?”

Seo feels a horrible sinking sensation in her stomach.  “You mean… I’m not just trapped in a computer program… I’m trapped in a psychic matrix of dead Time Lord memories, and I’m… changing it, somehow?”

Jenny clearly can’t hear her.

But Seo is starting to realize… it’s true.

Then Agent Smith appears and starts blathering on about a Keymaker, and Seo knows it’s definitely true.  She also ponders why they seem to be taking so much from the second Matrix movie, when she really hated that one.

“What happened to the spoon boy?” Seo demands of the world around her.  “I liked the spoon boy!”

A Time Lord with a gigantic collar and stupid hat appears before her, holding up a gigantic staff, which bends in the middle.  “The trick is to realize there is no Rod of Rassilon.”

Seo decides this is just getting silly, now.

But before she can complain, the semi-automatic gunfire starts up, again, and Seo finds herself running for her life.

"Brilliant," Seo mutters.  Then chides herself to, "Stop thinking!"

“Since you haven’t changed the environment, I’m guessing you’ve figured out what’s going on,” Jenny’s voice says, through the air.  “Listen, Seo.  There’s a situation, out here.  We found a device called a Ma’erissa, and the Time Lords need to talk to you.  We’re trying to open you up a Matrix Door, so you can get out of there.  But you need to stay calm and keep the landscape stable.  All right?”

Seo barely throws herself around a corner before Trinity and a bunch of agents in black suits blow her head off.

“Easier said than done!” Seo says.  “What’s this door supposed to look like?”

She keeps running until she bursts into an apartment building, which is run down and horrible-looking, but has a red arm chair right in the middle, and a man with sunglasses and a black trench coat, sitting on it.

“Oh, no,” Seo says, realizing exactly what the door will look like — something that’d match with her current conception of the world.  “ _You’re_ the door!”

“You take the blue pill, and the story ends,” says Laurence Fishburne. “You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

“Thanks, Noland from _Predators_ ,” says Seo, frustrated.  “I’ll keep that in mind!”

Through the air: “Seo, can you see it?  The door out of the Matrix?”

Seo sighs.  “Right.  I see.  That’s my choice, then, is it?  Take the door and go out into the real world, into Gallifrey and Wonderland, full of rabbits who wear ridiculous clothes and obsess over time.  Or stay in here…”

She remembers the Ma’erissa.

Remembers Giles, in his library full of books warning her of the dark partition.  Dark Partition… of the Time Lords’ super computer.

Remembers what the Moment told her — _how a Key sees a lock_.

“This is more than just a psychic matrix,” Seo realizes.  “If I could unlock the armory… and I can change around anything in here at a whim… then it must be the computer system that controls everything on Gallifrey.  And I’m the only one with a special master-key to unlock it.”

The Ma’erissa.

Someone on Gallifrey is a traitor.

“Someone’s trying to kill the Time Lords,” Seo says.  “But I’m never going to find out who, out there.”

She heads over to Laurence Fishburne.  Who repeats what he’d said, before — with a few slight changes.

“You take the blue pill — the story ends.  But if you take the red pill, you leave the Matrix, stay in wonderland, and follow all the white rabbits.”

Seo grabs the blue pill.

“My story isn’t ending,” Seo tells him.  “It’s just beginning.  That’s why… I’m staying in the Matrix.”

The pill turns into a book in her hands — the same book Giles tried to give her, in the library.  Then she spins around on her heels.

And throws herself out the window.

As she falls through the air, she twists and manipulates the landscape around her — so that she drops into a stack of soft pillows, waiting down below.  With a whole stack of locked boxes, all around her, just waiting to be opened.

Jenny’s voice echoes through the air, again.  “Seo!  What’s happened?  Did you miss the door?  Do you need us to make you a new one?”

Seo shuts off Jenny’s entrance into the Matrix.

And seals away any other doors or entrances than anyone might have access to.

"There’s a traitor on Gallifrey," says Seo.  "Someone who's been hiding here for a very long time, playing a long game.  And will now try to hand Gallifrey over to the Daleks.  So, to finding out who that is and what's really going on — it’s time to break into a few Time Lord secrets."

She climbs down from the pillow pile.

And opens up some of the locked cases.

…

Outside the Matrix, the Time Lords figure out what has just happen, and start getting desperate.

They can’t let Seo gain access to their secrets!

They just can’t.

They try to seal Seo into a partition in the Matrix, but she manages to unlock all their attempts and bust her way through their defenses — easily.  They try to scoop her, but she can avoid all their scoops.

Now that Seo knows where she is and why she can manipulate it, she’s completely in control of the Matrix and its powers.  So there's nothing anyone can do to stop her.

"She's the Key," Jenny says.  "Nothing can stop the Key."

"Except, perhaps," Braxiatel says, reaching up his sleeve, "the Key of Rassilon?"

He then reveals that he has the Key of Rassilon.  Which he stole a while ago, basically because he wanted to stop Rassilon from having it.

...

First, they use the Key of Rassilon to run a full biodata extract on Seo — to make sure she hasn't been taken over by the Ma'erissa.

Braxiatel immediately discovers something that startles him — namely, why the Matrix sees Seo as being familiar. But he quickly dismisses it, and pretends that Seo wiped the information herself. Actually, Braxiatel has wiped it, but we only discover this later.

It does become clear, though, from Seo's DE, that she isn't made very well at all, and certainly is an imperfect Gallifreyan. Beyond that, though, she's part… everything, really.

"Traces of Cyberman," Braxiatel reports, "of human, of dimensionally nodal engineering, bits of higher-dimensional elements… even a trace of that infant used to trap the Wyorin, during the War."

This alarms people.

But Romana dismisses it — as the Wyorin trace is negligent and clearly dormant. No. Romana finds out something else from that DE.

"She originated in the Axis," Romana says. "She shouldn't exist. An anomaly."

...

In the Matrix, Seo manipulates the landscape over and over again, to gain access to more and more secrets.  She gets into pockets of the Matrix so secret and hidden that nobody has ever seen them for many centuries.

Then she opens an inconspicuous-looking door.

And discovers a great big huge bomb in the middle of an empty room.  A Matrix bomb.  Hooked up to all the Time Lords on Gallifrey.  And it’s ready and waiting to go off.

...

That's when the Time Lords manage to use the Key of Rassilon to force Seo out of the Matrix. But the others have already seen it — a bomb that had been locked away so far down that not even the Time Lords have detected it. All the Time Lords recognize the technology that created it, and they're all scared.

It's Dalek.

A traitor has been on Gallifrey since the end of the Time War, and they placed a bomb inside the Matrix, which was to be triggered by the Time Lord ascension if it had gone through. It would send out a psychic pulse, using the Matrix, to target every Gallifreyan on the planet, and implant the Time Lords with Dalek ideologies.

That way, even if the Time Lords had destroyed the whole universe, they'd still be wiped out, and turned into little more than Daleks.

The only life left in the universe would still be Dalek.

As it turns out, though, the bomb never got triggered — first, due to the Moment, and second, due to the Doctor's moving the planet. The revived Daleks assumed that Gallifrey was gone, and didn't send out an activation signal.

Then Gallifrey had signaled the Doctor on Trenzalore.

And the Daleks had discovered they still existed. The Daleks used their proximity to the rift on Trenzalore so they could communicate through it, changing the programming trigger so that the bomb would go off the second that Gallifrey was pulled into the real universe.

Luckily, this didn't happen because Gallifrey wasn't pulled into the real universe.

Another lucky escape.

Seo, in finding the bomb, had wound up triggering the countdown. It also triggered a number of Dalek Servators around the capital, who hadn't realized they were Dalek Servators until this minute.  
The Time Lords wind up taking these Dalek Servators down with extreme efficiency and ruthlessness, one that showed that they'd been fighting a long time against these kinds of things. They are furious at Seo for stumbling in and doing her best job of destroying their world for them, but… as Jenny points out, "Would you rather she hadn't found this bomb, and you'd known nothing about it until the moment you all turned into Daleks?"

They almost succeed in eliminating the bomb, by partitioning the Matrix, but Seo's fiddling has taken down all ability to properly partition.

The bomb explodes, and the pulse encompasses the entire planet.

Every single person on Gallifrey is affected — EXCEPT for Seo, who is too human/hell god for the pulse to recognize her as Gallifreyan.

Jenny, however, is affected just like all the others.

Seo throws herself back into the Matrix, to escape the Time Lord Daleks, and — using her special Key powers — finds a log of exactly what data comprised the bomb, and what happened when it exploded. While the Time Lord Daleks try to get her out of the Matrix, Seo hurries to create her own "undo" bomb, which will restore them all to normal, again.

She is found and they attempt to drag her off, just after she's finished building the bomb, but before she has time to construct it. She grabs something important (find important item and insert here), and chucks it at the bomb.

The bomb explodes, and all the Time Lords go back to normal.

The day is saved!

...

This proves to the Time Lords that Jenny is really one of them. She was transformed just like everyone else, so she must be a true Gallifreyan!

When Braxiatel suggests that perhaps Jenny would enjoy staying on Gallifrey and becoming a Time Lady, Jenny eagerly accepts. She's determined to be a Time Lady for real, and to learn about Gallifrey!

...

At the end of the story, everyone seems very happy and very grateful. Braxiatel excuses himself and Seo, then takes Seo aside and tells her that he's arranged everything — and she can leave.

Seo insists that she isn't budging.

Braxiatel tries to reason with Seo — Jenny will fit into this society, but Seo will not. She is a key to unlock dimensions and universes, and certain powers on Gallifrey are very keen to make sure she stays here forever.

"And not as a guest," Braxiatel informs her.

Still, Seo won't move. She insists that she's not going anywhere until she rescues the Moment.

Braxiatel knows that she's never going to be able to get the Moment. So he plays his final card — and tells her, "Seo. I know."

"You know what?"

"I read it in the Matrix," Braxiatel says. "Then wiped the records. It's why you could navigate the lower vaults. It's why the Matrix recognized you. Why this whole planet recognizes you — and is afraid of you."

Seo still has no idea what he means.

But you can see that a part of her is very defensive about the fact that she's Seo. And she doesn't want to be anyone else.

"Yes, you seem quite an amiable sort of person," Braxiatel concedes. "Perhaps you could even talk the other Time Lords around. But Rassilon is returning from Southern Gallifrey. And if you're still here, when he arrives… then this planet will become your tomb."

Seo leaves.

Braxiatel looks after her, intrigued. We discover that while Braxiatel had known about Jenny, he hadn't known about Seo.

"If you're here," Braxiatel mutters to himself, "then it means… you beat Rassilon, once before." He turns. "Perhaps, you'll be able to do it again."

...

Seo goes back to her own universe, and grabs up Dawn — who is, at this point, extremely pregnant with her third child (Will).

The next thing we see is Seo and her aunt inside of Oliver, trying to make a precision materialization inside a transduction barrier, an armory, and another universe. All three of which should be impossible, but are possible with Seo and Dawn together.

Dawn tells Seo that if this hurts her baby, she's going to literally kill Seo. Multiple times. Seo assures Dawn that this is going to be fine, and nothing bad's going to happen.

They manage to drop in and pick up the Moment, then immediately take off again and go back. The Time Lords are outraged but can't really do anything. Seo is very happy.

Seo tells the Moment, "You didn't think I was just going to leave you behind, did you?"

When the Moment reminds Seo that there's a price to be paid, in her own future, for this rescue — Seo replies that "that's the thing about my future — it's all what I make it. And I'm not going to let that price involve anyone except me."

She drops off her aunt back home.

And the story ends with the Moment telling Seo that she's a very nice, kindhearted person — and she doesn't deserve what's coming to her.

"Maybe not," says Seo. "But you didn't either."


	9. Planets We haven't Blown Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm... this probably should have gone earlier, into the "Season 5" section. But anyways, I was looking through my folder for other summaries and found this little story I wrote, from right after I saw the episode where the Doctor saves Gallifrey. Thought people might like it.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

"Reserous 4," Jenny said, brushing back her ponytail over her shoulders. "Definitely haven't blown up that one."

"Oh, good one!" Seo said, grinning. "Beautiful planet, and lots of people. You can feel guilt for centuries over not blowing up that planet."

The Doctor spun on Seo, pointing. "Now, look here…!"

"How about Trestor 10?" Seo added, bouncing on her toes. "We haven't blown up that one, either!"

"Or Dresola," Jenny pointed out. "I love the moons on Dresola."

The Doctor flapped his arms. "It wasn't exactly like…!" he began.

"Dunno about Dresola," Seo remarked, pausing by a chair to reflect on the matter. "I mean, it's lovely. Yes. But is it lovely enough to spend three regenerations sulking about blowing it up when you actually didn't?"

"Well… no, you're right," Jenny decided. Nodding. "Definitely a two-regeneration sulk planet."

The Doctor threw up his arms.

"I can't believe it!" he shouted. "Are you two ever going to quit going on about this?!"

Seo and Jenny looked at him.

Then back at each other.

And tried to suppress hysterical laughter.

"Gallifrey was very complicated," the Doctor pointed out to them. "Extremely timey-whimey. And it involved a semi-sentient super-weapon who took the form of Rose Tyler, and went through history making sure—"

"The Iridescent Pools of Wopilon," Jenny cut in, with the click of her fingers. "There! Now that's a planet I could spend three regenerations sulking over not blowing up."

"Plus, you could spend your spare waking hours," Seo pointed out, "counting and agonizing over the number of children you didn't kill! Genius!"

The Doctor slumped against the central console of his TARDIS.

"You're never going to stop going on at me about this, are you?" He shook his head. "Daughters. Really! You learn you haven't blown up one planet…"

"Which you've been sulking about for three regenerations," Seo added.

"And rejected both of us as being 'unreal Time Ladies' and 'echoes' to preserve the memory of," Jenny agreed.

"…due to intervention from two future incarnations," the Doctor continued, ignoring them, "and a future companion who's popped up inexplicably across your own past — and they never let you forget it!"

Seo and Jenny met eyes, again.

Then laughed even harder.

"Oh, just... shut it!" the Doctor said, turning back to the console and trying to look busy. "I'm trying to be brilliantly genius, over here, and save the Rugack System from the Giant Sneeze. I don't need you two harping on me."

Jenny nodded, smugly.

Put an arm around Seo's shoulders. "Better let him get on with it," Jenny said, leading her out of the console room. "After all. If we distract him while he saves the Rugack System, he might forget and spend another three regenerations sulking because he thinks he blew it up."

"I am not going to…!" the Doctor shouted after them.

But they didn't hear.

They were already gone.


	10. Braxiatel in the Time War

There are a number of stories I wanted to write, at this point, which would show the general political situation on Gallifrey and how Jenny plays into it.

Braxiatel is a big part of Jenny's education and life on Gallifrey.

As seen in the story where Jenny & Seo discover Gallifrey, there was clearly some issue involving Brax and the Time War. We've seen this in the Bernice Summerfield series by Big Finish (Braxiatel is in communication with a future self, helping to secure a victory for the Time Lords in some future war). And we've seen hints of it in Reunion and in the story with Jenny and Seo finding Gallifrey.

So I wanted to write the story of Braxiatel in the Time War.

I like many things about this story. The basic idea behind the story is that Braxiatel is telling Jenny about him in the Time War. But the story he's telling Jenny isn't the same as what actually happened. So we get to see what actually happened... and then what he tells Jenny. I also like how it's very obviously different from the Doctor's Time War story. I really like the reason that Braxiatel starts fighting in the war.

In the end... it's not just a war story. It's a love story.

The story of the Time Lord who  _didn't_  end the Time War.

I actually wrote most of this story before I moved on to my independent fiction. It's a first draft, of course, but I'll post it up here, anyways. With summaries to tie it all together.

* * *

** Braxiatel In the Time War **

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

Jenny looked out at the eight-year-old Time Tots, gathered before the crack in reality. The darkness of night made the residual light from the vortex dance across Jenny's skin, and illuminate her eyes, as she watched the initiation ceremony.

Braxiatel, beside her, did not watch the children.

He watched Jenny.

"No one ever forgets what they saw, when they looked into the untempered schism," Braxiatel told her. "It… changes you."

"Romana says you've been trying to have the ritual banned," Jenny remarked. She glanced over at him. "You won't even let me have a look-see."

Yes.

It was why Jenny was here. Because she had begged to be allowed to take part in any ritual that allowed her to formally be called a "Time Lady", even this one. And Braxiatel had forbidden it.

She had to see the truth.

She had to see what it did.

"You have already seen the power of the vortex," Braxiatel replied, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And did so when your mind was grown enough to be able to handle it."

Jenny said nothing.

Just turned her eyes back to the children standing before the untempered schism. Watching, as they awaited their turns.

"They all think they know who they are," Braxiatel said, gesturing at the children. "But watch them, as they look into the untempered schism. It changes everyone."

Jenny did watch, as the first child was brought forwards. A young boy whose eyes went wide, as he stared into that crack in reality. His face flickering with the colors of the vortex.

He said nothing, but was dragged away, after only a minute or two. His whole body trembling. His face pale. Unable to speak.

"He's terrified," Jenny breathed.

"But he isn't trying to run," Braxiatel commented, as the child recovered himself. "Impressive."

The next child was brought forwards.

To stare into the untempered schism.

"Was that what Dad did?" Jenny asked. "Take one look and run away?"

Braxiatel had been there. Pulled out of his lessons and the Academy to witness the event. He remembered chasing after… 'little Thete', as he was called, back then… and trying to calm him. Even as the boy was pushing him away, to run faster and farther.

"Didn't you?" Braxiatel asked.

Jenny shook her head. "I wanted to," she admitted. "But I didn't. I stayed. I saved my sister."

A smile spread across Braxiatel's face, as he clasped his hands behind his back. "You are a brave woman, Jenny," he said. "That's good."

The next child actually screamed, when she stared into the untempered schism. Turned on her heel and tried to run.

But was caught and returned to the others.

"They don't all run, though?" Jenny checked. "Romana said she felt inspired, when she looked into the untempered schism. She said it was the moment she knew that there was so much out there she didn't understand, and she needed to learn it all."

Braxiatel chuckled.

He expected no less of the Lady Romana.

"Some are inspired," Braxiatel informed her. "Some are terrified. And some… simply go mad." The smile dropped off his face. "Your father had a very good friend who went mad, staring into that schism."

"The Master," Jenny recalled. "I've heard of him. Never met him."

"I'm aware of that," Braxiatel muttered.

And he'd been doing his very best to ensure that state of affairs continued. Particularly considering the Master's rather deranged obsession with the Doctor.

The next child looked into the untempered schism with a sort of wondrous glow in his eyes. Reached out as if to touch it, but was pulled back before any damage could be done.

"And what about you, Brax?" Jenny asked, suddenly. Turned on him, crossing her arms. "What did you see, when you looked?"

Braxiatel went very quiet.

His eyes turning away from her, fixing on the children gathered before them.

"Me?" Braxiatel said, his voice barely above a whisper. As he remembered… gathering here, in the dark of night. The cool wind on his face. The terror in his hearts, as he saw the reactions of the children before him.

And the moment he'd been led up to the untempered schism… and looked into it, himself.

"I… saw… my destiny," Braxiatel said, carefully. "And learned the future of Gallifrey."

Jenny frowned. "You mean the Time War?"

Braxiatel didn't need to answer that. The answer was clear enough, already.

"So you were inspired, too," said Jenny. "Like Romana."

"Inspired," Braxiatel repeated. As if trying to make the word fit… except that it stuck out at all the wrong angles. And wouldn't pop into place. "I wouldn't put it quite like that."

He remembered, as he stared into the untempered schism… the swirls of infinity and eternity, the raw power of time and space… he'd seen something shimmer.

Then consolidate into an image. Projected across time and space. A tall, thin man, with black hair and sharp eyes.

And the child Braxiatel had known… in that moment… that this was himself.

 _"Ah, Braxiatel,"_ his elder-self had said. _"I trust you're doing well? Splendid. Best get down to business, then."_

His eight-year-old self hadn't dared to move. Terrified at the implications of what he was seeing.

As the man with the dark hair suddenly turned deadly serious.

 _"Tragedy will befall the Time Lords,"_ said the elder Braxiatel. _"A war, worse than all other wars. But you, Braxiatel, must be the one to end it."_

And then the words he'd never forgotten.

_"You will save the Time Lords."_

"My destiny," Braxiatel said, once more to Jenny. "My future."

For that was the moment Braxiatel had learned… that he would constantly and persistently defy the first law of time.

Over and over again.

That was his true destiny.

* * *

Jenny only confronted him about this a week later.

After she'd had a chance to do a little more research. So she could walk into the debate forearmed with knowledge.

A true warrior. As always.

"Everyone here says you were one of the last Time Lords to enter the War," Jenny told him. "Except…"

"…except the Lady Romana," Braxiatel acknowledged. He folded his hands on the desk, before him. Putting aside his papers and official documents. "I take it you've spoken to her, about this?"

Jenny sat down, before him, with a sigh. "She didn't want to talk about the War," she said. "No one ever does."

No.

No one ever did.

Not after what they'd all seen.

"But she said that you defended Gallifrey from the very beginning," Jenny went on. "And… after what you told me you saw in the untempered schism…"

"You wish to know how I became involved in the War," Braxiatel guessed.

A reasonable enough desire.

What else would Braxiatel expect, from someone with a mind as persistent and inquisitive as Jenny's?

Braxiatel got up from his chair, and began pacing the room. Trying to think of where to begin.

"I told you that, when I was eight, I saw my destiny," Braxiatel said. He paused in his walk. His eyes staring out the window, at the red grass of his home world. "When I looked into the untempered schism… I heard a voice. It told me that there would be a war. And that I would end it. I would save the Time Lords."

Jenny had to stifle a startled laugh. "But… you didn't!" she said. "Dad did!"

Braxiatel said nothing.

"How could you have looked into time," Jenny asked, "and seen something that didn't…?"

"I set up the Braxiatel Collection," Braxiatel cut in, sharply, "to preserve something of cultures that had been lost to the universe. And with the Time War raging in the background, there were… rather more cultures to preserve than ever before."

"You're changing the subject," Jenny accused.

He glanced back at her. "I assure you, I am not," Braxiatel said. He continued his pacing. "A certain archaeologist under my employ was particularly… adept at unearthing ancient artifacts while surviving great dangers. That is why I sent her to the planet Evadaius."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, we've got kind of a Bernice Summerfield crossover in this one, too!
> 
> Bernice Summerfield (AKA Benny) is an archaeologist. She works for Irving Braxiatel at the Braxiatel Collection. Peter is her son.
> 
> The other thing that you need to know (this gets explained later in the story, too) is that Braxiatel got caught up in some craziness involving alternate timelines and evil Gallifreyan monsters lurking in the Matrix, and, as a result, wound up with an evil alternate-self. The alternate-Braxiatel is still the same conniving, scheming Braxiatel that we know and love, but he wound up getting tortured by the Daleks and going kind of nuts because of it, and ended up turning people into Cybermen, wiping memories, unwriting people from time, and starting massive wars... just to get his way.
> 
> Benny and the others on the Collection got to watch the alternate-Brax quite literally go insane before their eyes.
> 
> The current Braxiatel, however, actually saved Peter from slavery and helped him get back on his feet. Peter trusts him. Everyone else is wary that he'll go mad, one day, like the other Braxiatel did.
> 
> I think that's all you have to know...
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

 

Evadaius

"Yes, by all accounts, the Evadians were a culture steeped in oral tradition," Professor Bernice Summerfield — Benny — explained, carefully brushing away dust from her latest archaeological find. "Despite being technologically advanced, they believed the height of art was in singing stories, not in writing them down."

"Which is why no one ever knew why their culture died out," Peter said, with a groan. "I know, mum. You told me this on the trip over."

Benny managed to dislodge the artifact she was uncovering. Making careful note and catalogue of it. "Did I?"

"Yes!" Peter said. "And that these ruins are about a hundred years old, in a gravity field increasingly unstable following the death of all life on this planet. And that you dragged me out to this planet, because you have all these mad conspiracy theories about what Irving Braxiatel might really be up to, back on the Collection. And you want to 'keep me safe' from him."

Benny glanced up at her son. "I don't trust him," she muttered. "After all, I remember what…!" She looked at Peter, then gave it up. "Forget it," she said, putting the artifact aside.

"Like it or not, Irving proved himself a long time ago, mum," Peter pointed out. "You should know that."

Benny stood up, turning on Peter. "The Time Lords are marching across the universe," she said, throwing her arm out at the sky, "rewriting time and history in some barbaric war, and you think…!"

"Irving has nothing to do with that," Peter cut in, sharply. "Humans have started a lot of wars that you haven't liked. Kilorans have started wars that Dad didn't like. That doesn't make those wars your faults. And it doesn't make this one Irving's."

Benny paused.

Then dropped her hands. "I suppose you're right," she mumbled. Looking out at the dig. "I just wish I knew why he sent me here."

Peter slouched to one side. "You're an archaeologist," he said. "This is a dig."

"It's not as simple as that," Benny said. "It never is with Braxiatel."

As if right on cue…

"Professor Summerfield!" came the shout from one of the students she'd brought with her, on the dig. He scuttled over the landscape. "We found something. Something… unlike anything else on this planet."

Benny's mind raced with theories.

Some alien intervention or invasion, which wiped this planet out?

The remains of an alien spacecraft?

"Show me," Benny said, hurrying after the student.

* * *

The machine, now powerless and dead, was intricate and beautifully designed. The entire structure impossible, so that Benny had to squint to take it in, and even then, couldn't quite believe her eyes. The contours seemed to shift, one way or another, as if drifting in and out of the visible spectrum.

"Highly sophisticated technology," Peter said, "damaged." He turned to his mum. "Well. Here's why the Evadians died out. All your questions are answered. Now, can we go?"

Benny stepped up to the machine they'd dug out of the sand.

It was, as Peter said, damaged. The outside cracked and scarred and broken. But… not from a crashed ship or overuse.

"Peter's right," Benny said. Leaned down, towards the dust at the base of the machine. Blew it away to expose the rock beneath, traced with scorch marks and burns. "This was what destroyed all life on this planet. It must have given out a tremendous blast, when it went off."

Peter sighed, now completely bored.

"But the damage to the device itself wasn't caused by it exploding," said Benny. Getting back up and circling the machine, carefully. "These are natural erosion marks. Rust. Decay. The sort of thing you'd expect to find in any artifact that's been buried in the ground for a century."

One of the students reached out to touch it. "But if it wasn't a damaged piece of Evadian technology, malfunctioning, then what…?"

Benny caught the hand, before it reached the machine.

"It's not Evadian technology," said Benny. "It's a weapon. Designed to send out a destructive pulse… probably across a specific spectrum of dimensions, judging by how its exterior shifts about that way."

The student pulled back her hand, alarmed.

"But if the Evadians didn't construct it, then why would…?" Benny suddenly turned on Peter. Who had been skulking back, some ways, pretending to look bored.

But not quite bored enough.

"Peter," Benny said, her voice low, "why did Irving send you here?"

Peter gave a frustrated sigh. "He sent  _you_  here," he complained. " _You_  dragged  _me_  along."

"Yes, but you didn't protest too much, when I did." Benny straightened. Walking over to her son, slowly. "He wanted you along, on this dig, to make sure you'd bring this back to the Collection. Didn't he?"

Peter didn't answer.

"Peter!" Benny roared.

"He knew this planet had been one of the battlegrounds," Peter confessed. "He suspected there was something dangerous left behind. He wanted you to get it out and bring it back, so he could properly dispose of it." He scanned the horizon. "And he sent me along, just in case there were any… lingering survivors."

Benny felt fury flooding through her. "This is all part of this… Time War."

Peter didn't need to answer that.

"We've both faced down Daleks, mum," Peter said, instead. He gestured at the machine. "Collecting and safely disposing of their weapons would be the best thing for everyone. And if Irving can learn something about how the Dalek weapons operate, at the same time… then maybe he'd be able to protect everyone on the Collection."

"Dalek…?!" Benny turned, storming back to the Braxiatel Collection Shuttle. "Irving bloody Braxiatel!" she shouted. "I'm going to kill him!"

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

Benny stormed into Braxiatel's office, when she got back to the Collection. Her face like thunder. Her eyes bitter and furious.

"How long?" Benny demanded.

Braxiatel had been listening to a Bach sonata. Turned down the volume, when Benny entered the room. And gave her a perfectly charming smile.

"Bernice," he said. "How good to see you've returned. I trust the dig proved as illuminating as you'd initially hoped?"

"More than you know," Benny growled. She pointed out the window, to where the Collection crews were unloading the doomsday machine she'd uncovered during the dig. "Peter might not know, but I do. The Evadians were humanoid creatures, and one of the closest matches to your people's biology. And that weapon was created to wipe out all biological life on the planet."

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Don't deny it, Braxiatel," said Benny. "That was not a Dalek weapon. It was made by your people."

Braxiatel was quiet for a moment longer.

"Yes," he said, at last. "I suspect… you may be right."

"From my point of view, from Peter's, the Evadians have been dead for at least a century," said Benny. "But that's only because your Time War altered time!"

"It is hardly  _my_ …"

"How long, Brax?" Benny demanded. "How long have they been dead? From  _your_  perspective?"

Braxiatel was silent for a long moment.

Then turned away from Benny.

"Two days before you departed on the dig," Braxiatel said, at last.

Benny didn't know what to say to this.

"I have limited access to news of the Time War," said Braxiatel. "But from what I understood, Daleks had amassed around that planet, at a temporal location about a hundred years behind us. My people… felt they had to act."

"You mean they sent a weapon down to the planet," Benny corrected, "and killed everyone, before the Daleks could invade."

Braxiatel said nothing.

"There were no bodies, Brax," Benny said. "No bones! No biological data of any kind! Your people killed all those Evadians just to stop the Daleks from gaining information."

"The Evadians had been on the verge of mastering complete cellular regeneration," Braxiatel replied. "To allow that knowledge to fall into the hands of the Daleks would be… disastrous." He shrugged. "I suppose my people thought… this was an expedient solution."

"Expedient…?!" Benny couldn't stop herself from trembling with rage. Only just stopped herself from grabbing Braxiatel up and shaking him.

"I am not responsible for my people's actions," Braxiatel told her. "I'm not part of the War."

"No, you just send us out to dig up Time War Battlefields, and bring back weapons," Benny replied. "You're not involved at all."

"And I suppose you'd rather leave those weapons lying about," said Braxiatel, calmly, "for the Daleks to find and use on the rest of the universe? I suppose you'd be happy if the Time Lords caved and surrendered to the Daleks, allowing them to rewrite time to their own design?"

Benny opened her mouth to speak.

But no words came out.

"I don't like this war any more than you do, Bernice," Braxiatel said. "But I have a duty to preserve the memory of the races and worlds wiped out by the fighting. And if I can remove some rather dangerous weapons at the same time… then perhaps that is for the best."

Benny stared at him, hard.

Waiting for him to crack.

He didn't.

And she sighed. Finally caving, and admitting… there was no one she could properly berate for the carnage and destruction she kept seeing. Not in person.

"This is not my war," Braxiatel said, again.

"I know," Benny sighed. "I just…" She glanced back out the window, at the other artifacts being unloaded from the dig. The remnants of a people wiped out by the Time War. "I wish it would end. No, I wish it had never happened in the first place."

Braxiatel joined her. Looking out the window at those artifacts.

Both silent.

Both thinking on a war in time and space that was killing so many.

It was only after Benny had left, and the machine that destroyed Evadaius had been moved to the middle of Braxiatel's study and left there, for him, that Braxiatel got down to work.

"Perhaps, Bernice," Braxiatel muttered, although she was long out of earshot, "you will get your wish."


	12. Chapter 12

Gallifrey, present-day

Braxiatel didn't tell this to Jenny, of course.

He summarized, as he always did. In his own way.

"Many on the Collection blamed me for the carnage they came across, as the result of the War," Braxiatel summarized. "Their anger was… understandable. And, I'll admit, they suspected that I was using the Collection to set some great plan into motion. But…"

He trailed off.

Thinking back to Bernice Summerfield and the way she'd blown up at him, over the war. To Bev Tarrent, who'd practically accused him of starting the war for his own nefarious purposes.

Of Haus, the gardener, who'd said,  _"So this is what it was all for. All your lies and deceit… just to save a race that have done_ this _to the universe."_

"…but Evadaius," said Braxiatel, "was different."

Jenny tilted her head to the side.

Her stare demanding he go on.

"I had a plan," Braxiatel said. "A way to end the war. A way to save Gallifrey. And that weapon… was how to start it."

Jenny raised her eyebrows.

"Not to destroy planets," Braxiatel hurried to explain. He shook his head. "No, no. The technology within that weapon was focused on a particular set of biological imperatives. Reconfigured correctly… it could, quite literally, tap into a person's timeline. Allowing brief contact with every moment of one's past… across every alternative."

Jenny's eyes widened.

As she worked it out.

"You sent yourself the message," Jenny said. "When you were eight."

"Yes."

"And… even afterwards…?"

"I continued to defy the First Law of Time," Braxiatel confirmed. "I had always been able to contact my other selves. But until I discovered that machine on Evadaius… I never quite understood how."

Jenny said nothing for a very long time.

Then… in a low voice… "Do the other Time Lords know?"

"No."

Jenny nodded.

"And since the War ended, I've been mostly unable to continue the practice," said Braxiatel. "It's… odd, having to operate without constant contact with yourself across time. It took some getting used to, at first."

"Why are you telling me?" Jenny asked.

"Because… it's time someone knew the truth," said Braxiatel. "About why I did it. And what I was trying to achieve."

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

There had been other Braxiatels in this universe.

Not merely past versions of himself, but actual other Braxiatels from alternate timelines, that had somehow been shuffled into the mix. This was mostly due to an unfortunate and very confusing set of events involving himself, the Axis. Although it didn't help that alternate Braxiatel had been fracturing his own timeline, left, right, and center.

Bernice never let him forget about the alternate Braxiatel.

"Defend the Collection from Daleks?!" Benny shouted. "I remember the last time you decided to 'defend' this Collection. You nearly turned my husband into a Cyberman!"

Braxiatel had no memory of ever doing this.

But the information, as always, was useful.

"That wasn't me," Braxiatel reminded her. "That was an alternate Braxiatel.  _I_  never knew Jason Cane."

Of course, the alternate-Braxiatel had done more than simply try to turn Jason into a Cyberman. Whatever changes the alternate-Braxiatel had made to the Collection, following its initial invasion by Daleks long ago, were now effectively concealing him from the Daleks in the Time War.

And, of course, considering how the Dalek technology had changed from that point to this, there's only one way that the alternate-Braxiatel could know enough to do that.

"You've just been invaded by Daleks," Braxiatel communicated to his other-self, at the precise point in time after the Axis invasion and the Dalek plot had been defeated. "Take this as a warning. The Collection is vulnerable. And if you don't find a way to protect it, we'll never be able to save Gallifrey."

The current Braxiatel ended his communication with a run-down of specs and data, all sent to his alternate-self. Essentially, it was everything he'd need to make sure the Daleks wouldn't invade the Collection during the Time War.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"I was never planning to get involved in the war at all," Braxiatel told Jenny. "The Collection was safe from the Daleks. I was able to scavenge what I needed from the worlds that had been destroyed. And the longer I stayed out of the battles, the more certain I could be that, when I finally stepped in, I would ultimately win."

"You were staying out of the war," Jenny guessed, "because you had a plan to end it."

"I had a plan to save both Gallifrey and the Time Lords," Braxiatel told her. "That's why I defied the First Law of Time! That's why I continually came to the aid of my former selves. For the sake of my people!"

Jenny thought this over.

Carefully.

"But that's not what Romana says," she put in. With a sideways smile.

Braxiatel couldn't meet her eyes.

"Those artifacts you dug up, on those destroyed worlds," Jenny guessed. "At least some of them  _were_  Dalek weapons, weren't they? Or battle plans. Or things to give the Time Lords an advantage."

"The Daleks and their allies were carefully monitoring any trace of TARDIS or vortex travel," said Braxiatel. "But an archaeological expedition from an academic institute, using traditional space travel… didn't register as a threat. We could get away with it."

"And you knew exactly where to dig and what the Time Lords wanted," Jenny continued to guess, thinking through everything she'd learned, "because someone dropped by and told you. Over and over again."

Braxiatel met Jenny's eyes.

"Romana?" Jenny said.

"Romana," Braxiatel agreed.

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

The sound of a materializing TARDIS was the first sign Braxiatel ever got that she was coming. And he considered himself lucky that no one else on the Collection had ever heard it. Or they'd be certain he was involved in the Time War.

Braxiatel drew the blinds to his study, as the TARDIS fully materialized.

And Romana stepped out the door.

"Did you find it?" she asked, nearly breathless. She looked exhausted, her eyes sunken, her hair tangled. There were traces of a nasty gash on her forehead, which Braxiatel had not seen the last time she'd arrived.

Braxiatel removed a painting from the wall. Unlocked the safe, behind it.

And drew out the small Dalek device he'd unearthed from one of their battlegrounds. "As you requested, my Lady."

Romana was across the office in seconds, snatching the device out of his hands and examining it. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Perfect. Exactly what we needed."

"And I suppose you require something else, as well?" Braxiatel asked.

Romana secured the Dalek device in a stasis field, and tucked it away inside her TARDIS. In its place, she brought out a four-dimensional star-map. And unfolded it along Braxiatel's desk.

"Yurgel 7," Romana said, pointing to it. "We received intelligence that the Daleks were concealing something, there. Four days ago, we arrived… to find the planet utterly annihilated."

"The temporal trace on the map implies the planet's destruction took place long ago," Braxiatel pointed out. "I don't see what I might contribute to…"

"The planet was disintegrated into fragments of rock and debris," Romana cut in. "The biggest bit of debris collided with a planet in your star system, some twelve thousand years ago." She pointed to the symbol of it, on her map. "An excavation should be trivial. And I'll set up a distraction for the Daleks, while your team gets on with it."

Braxiatel nodded.

As Romana rolled up her map, tucking it away inside her robes.

"Has there been any success?" Braxiatel asked. Not sure he wanted to hear the answer. "Have you pushed the Daleks back at all?"

"We've been doing our best," Romana replied. "But they're persistent. Clever. We need every advantage we can get." Then, almost as an after-thought… "The Doctor has joined the war."

That made Braxiatel do a double-take.

"You mean he hadn't been part of it, before?" Braxiatel asked. "From his exploits, battling the Daleks across time through all his various lives, I assumed he'd been one of the first to volunteer."

"If you tell him he has a chance to be clever and go on an adventure, he'll battle the Daleks every time," said Romana. "But call it a 'war', and remind him that he might have to follow the orders of the Time Lord High Council…"

"Ah," said Braxiatel. "I see."

Romana gave a dry laugh. "Not that he's any more cooperative, now that he's officially joined us," she put in. "He refuses to respond to 'Doctor' anymore. He told me all this rubbish about the name being a duty and an oath that he's broken… but I think it's just an excuse so he can ignore the High Council when they say, 'Doctor, do this', or 'Doctor, do that'."

"He's always been a firm believer in doing things his own way," Braxiatel replied. "And in speaking out for what he feels is right. That's what made him have to steal a TARDIS and flee Gallifrey in the first place."

"But he will help," Romana insisted. "I'm certain of it."

"Against the Daleks?" Braxiatel nodded. "Yes. I believe he will."

Romana turned, officiously. Striding back towards her TARDIS. "I've set up a false vortex trail," she said. "The Daleks won't realize I've been here. No one will." She paused, in the threshold of her ship. Glanced back over her shoulder, at Braxiatel.

Their eyes met.

"Thank you," Romana said.

Then left.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"She told me when your father first joined the war," said Braxiatel. "And… kept me abreast of those who'd died."

"Like your friends," Jenny muttered. "Or her friends."

"If you ask the Lady Romana, she insists she has no friends," said Braxiatel. "Only… colleagues and associates."

"Rubbish," said Jenny. "She's Dad's friend. Dad used to talk about her all the time."

Braxiatel simply shrugged.

Didn't reply to this.

"When Ace disappeared," Braxiatel continued, with his story, "that was… difficult. One of the archaeologists on the Collection — Bernice Summerfield — had been a close acquaintance of hers. I had to break the news."

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

Braxiatel had to duck the ceramic plate flying through the air — so that it struck the wall behind him, instead of his head.

"Bernice, I insist, I had nothing to do with…!" Braxiatel tried.

"No, you never do!" Benny shouted. "You and your people. You think you're like gods, able to play around with us little people and make us do your dirty work!"

She grabbed up another plate from her cupboard, and hurled it at him.

Braxiatel tried to work out some way to get to the door and escape Benny's wrath.

"I've seen wars against the Daleks, before!" Benny shouted. "I've seen them kill with no mercy! I've had to live in the aftermath of their attacks. But even in the worst Dalek invasion — there's never been this kind of devastation! Not until your people got involved!"

"Bernice — Benny!" Braxiatel tried to explain.

"The Daleks were  _retreating_ , Braxiatel!" Benny shouted. "You said your people had won the battle! But, oh, no, that wasn't enough for you! You had to make sure Davros was dead!"

She grabbed another plate from the cupboard.

And flung it at him.

The plate smashing into the far wall, as Braxiatel jumped out of the way.

"And did you send a Time Lord in?" Benny continued. "No! You sent in Ace! A child!"

"She was scarcely a child, when…" Braxiatel tried.

But gave it up, when Benny started screaming at him. As it soon became perfectly clear she wasn't listening.

"She had nothing to do with your war, Brax!" Benny screamed. "She was an innocent Earth-kid! From the 1980's!" She reached for more plates, but found none. "She should never have even been involved!"

"I was told she volunteered," Braxiatel said. "And she had been studying on Gallifrey for some time. She knew she had a duty to…"

Benny grabbed the nearest breakable object at hand, to throw at him. "And therefore, she was expendable?!" She raised it over her head.

"No, wait, Benny!" Braxiatel protested, edging towards the door. "That's twelfth century glassware from the Argolene Court."

Benny paused. Looking down at the wine glass she'd picked up.

And Braxiatel made a mad dash for the door.

"This isn't…" Then she looked up. And noticed Braxiatel bolting out the door. "Why you…! Irving Braxiatel, you get back here right now!"

He shoved the door closed.

And retreated back to his study. Wondering if he was in more danger here, facing down Bernice Summerfield, than his own people were out there against the Daleks.

* * *

"He didn't start the war," said Peter. "In fact, he's been staying out of it. Refusing to fight."

Adrien growled. "But I bet he has an angle on it."

Peter shot his dad a weary stare. "Don't be so melodramatic, Dad. He's not the same Braxiatel who ruined all our lives. That was an alternate-Braxiatel."

"Same Braxiatel or not," said Bev, " _this_ Braxiatel is definitely planning something. And he's using the Collection to do it." She flexed her cybernetic arm. The real one had been lost while fleeing the Collection, years before, when the alternate-Braxiatel had tried to kill her. "Your mum thinks he's purposely placing you and the rest of us in danger, simply so he can collect weapons from the Time War and use them in some master-plan."

"Mum can think whatever she wants," Peter retorted. "It doesn't make it true."

" _I_  also think that," said Bev. "And so does your dad."

Adrien growled, in affirmation.

"If he's not joining in the Time War, it's for a reason," said Bev. "And I doubt it's because he's a conscientious objector."


	13. Chapter 13

Gallifrey, present-day

"People die in wars," Jenny said. "The people on your Collection couldn't blame you for that."

"I was the easiest target," Braxiatel replied. "They needed a way to vent their anger. And they would scarcely begin shouting at a Dalek, now, would they?"

Jenny leaned back in her chair. "And you, of course, actually  _were_  taking part in the war. To a certain extent."

Braxiatel didn't answer this.

"And you  _did_  have a plan you were putting together, in the background," Jenny continued. "Contacting your other selves — both past-selves and alternate-selves — to put it in place."

"I had to save the Time Lords," Braxiatel replied, in a quiet voice.

Worst part of it was… he hadn't.

He'd failed.

"Let me guess," Jenny said. "At some point, your team on the Collection got wise to your scheming, and refused to go on your digs and excavations. So you just contacted a younger-self… and had him send his younger-team off to dig the artifacts up in your own past."

Braxiatel was quiet for a long time.

Then, "Quite."

Jenny gave a little laugh. "Clever."

"I did use the Collection to try to help people," Braxiatel insisted. "Not just preserving cultures, but… assisting the survivors. Many worlds were wiped out during the battles. Only a handful of refugees survived."

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

"Mayday, mayday!" came the call through the radio. "Is anyone out there? We are the only survivors of the planet Triu, and are being pursued by Dalek warships. We require safety and shelter! I repeat! We require safety and shelter!"

Braxiatel had picked up their distress call.

Pondered over it, thinking through the implications of letting them land… when Dalek patrols were after them.

"No, no, that won't do," Braxiatel muttered. He punched some buttons on the equipment in front of him. "If you land, the Daleks will find this place. And we can't have that."

He remotely hacked into the controls of their ship.

"But if it appears you've crashed in some way so there could be no survivors," Braxiatel continued, changing around the trajectories in their nav-computer, "then they'll be no reason to follow you down here."

Of course… it was a ruse. There would be survivors.

But Braxiatel could be clever enough to make it look like there were none.

* * *

Not everyone on the Collection was happy about the arrangement.

"This is the third ship he's crashed here this week!" Bev complained. "The Collection can't support this many people. We're getting low on supplies."

"And it's only a matter of time before the Daleks find out," Adrien agreed, "and this planetoid becomes the next battlefield in his Time War."

Benny shared her meal with a child refugee. "We can't just… turn them away!" She watched as the child ate the food with shaking hands. Eyes wide and terrified. "Look at them, Adrien! They have nowhere else to go! They were lucky to escape with their lives."

"He isn't doing it for  _their_  benefit," Bev replied. She looked out, among the crowd. At Braxiatel, charming his way through the refugees, discussing matters with them in hushed voices. "He's gathering intelligence. For his plan."

"Could be he set up this war in the first place," Adrien agreed. "Manipulated the timelines, so he could get something out of it, for himself."

"That's rubbish," said Benny, but she didn't sound so sure of herself.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Adrien reminded her. "The Draconians and the Mim? The Dynadum? The…?"

"All right, you made your point," Benny cut in, sharply. She stared out, at the refugees around her. "But it was an alternate-Braxiatel. I can't believe that  _this_  Braxiatel would…"

She trailed off.

Then sighed again.

"I  _can_  believe it," Benny corrected. "I just don't want to."

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Of course, the others believed I was saving refugees just to gather intelligence," Braxiatel told Jenny.

"Which you were," Jenny put in.

"Which I was," Braxiatel conceded. "But… I also wanted to help these people! I thought that maybe, in a universe falling apart, I could do some good."

Jenny shook her head. "But why didn't the other people on the Collection believe you?" she asked. "You said you were a different Braxiatel. You'd proved it."

Braxiatel went very quiet.

And Jenny worked it out.

"You were communicating with the alternate version of Braxiatel," said Jenny. "To put your plan into action."

"There was a version of myself who hurt those people very badly," Braxiatel conceded. "Some he killed. Others he simply… wiped from history, as though they never existed." He cleared his throat. "I'd heard all of that, of course, beforehand. But…"

He paused.

Then, in a quieter voice, "…perhaps, now, I understand why he did it."

"You feel responsible," Jenny guessed. "Guilty."

Braxiatel looked up at her. His eyes cold, and dark. "We do things in war, Jenny, that we're not proud of," he said. "We do them because we have to. We do them to survive."

Jenny said nothing.

"I never wanted to hurt innocent people," Braxiatel continued. "Jason Cane. Miss Jones. The war between the Draconians and the Mim! I didn't kill them, I didn't start his wars or put in place his schemes… but I knew, when I told him what I needed him to do to save the Time Lords — the measures he'd go to, in order to accomplish it. I'd already witnessed the consequences of his actions. Perhaps I should have stopped it. Perhaps I should have abandoned the plan and changed history and made all those people live again! But… the Time War…"

His eyes fixed into the distance.

"If you could have seen its destruction," Braxiatel whispered, "how it tore the universe apart, day by day, across all of time and space… you'd do everything you could to end it, too."

Jenny didn't know how to answer this.

Just nodded.

"I think… I would," she agreed.

* * *

The Braxiatel Collection

"…a small fragment of a refined, time-active Dalekanium rod," Romana was explaining to Braxiatel, during one of her trips to the Collection. "Placed just here." She pointed to the four dimensional star-map. It had changed so much, in such a short time. The battles in the Time War destroying bits of the universe and changing the time-space continuum in ways that no one could have predicted. "Bring us that, and we might be able to counter their latest assault on Minoricacia."

She started to fold up her map, but Braxiatel put a hand on hers.

"It's not going well, is it?" Braxiatel asked.

Romana took a few deep breaths, before she could answer. Her eyes looked like they'd seen too much. Her hands were shaking.

"The fall of the Scaxler System put them into a position of strength," said Romana. "And our attempts to destroy their mining and slave planets haven't been as successful as we'd hoped. They gained too much intelligence and too much ground at the very beginning of the war — with the Ma'erissa infiltration weapons, and the Wyorin."

"I thought you'd dealt with those problems," said Braxiatel.

"Too little too late," said Romana. "With the Doctor on our side, we've been able to win some victories. Gain some hope. But it's not enough. We need to take… more drastic action."

"Drastic…?"

Romana looked up, and met his eyes. "The High Council has voted to resurrection Lord Rassilon."

For a few long minutes, there was utter silence between them.

As the full news of this… sunk in.

"I see." Braxiatel stepped aside, nodding, slowly. "That is certainly drastic."

Romana gathered up the map, and tucked it away. Turning back to her TARDIS. "I have to go."

Braxiatel caught her by the arm.

She glanced back at him.

"And… you?" Braxiatel checked.

"Me?" Romana said, yanking her arm away from him. She composed herself, so she seemed as steady and commanding as ever. "I spoke up in favor of his resurrection. Publicly."

"After the business with Zagreus," Braxiatel reminded her, "you are scarcely Rassilon's favorite person."

"Why else do you think I supported the action so vigorously?" Romana replied.

Ah.

It all made sense, now.

"However much the Doctor chooses to kick up a fuss," Romana continued, "the Time Lords  _will_ resurrect Rassilon. He's the greatest military leader Gallifrey's ever had, and he defeated some of the most powerful evils from the Dark Times. His resurrection was never in doubt."

"And you knew, if you spoke out against it, that Rassilon would kill you the second he returned," Braxiatel muttered. "He'd have to. Publicly — make an example of you. But… if you were in  _favor_  of his resurrection…"

Romana had always been clever.

He should never have been in doubt that she'd have some brilliant plan.

"We're already short on Time Lords," said Romana. "It'd make no sense for him to kill off a supporter." She shot Braxiatel a proud smile. "I don't doubt he'll still try to dispose of me, somehow. But I'll make sure that doing so is difficult for him."

"I'm certain you will," said Braxiatel.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"So you planned to sit out the war, until the last minute," Jenny clarified, "then swoop in with some master-plan, and save everyone." She folded her arms on the table. "But that's not what happened. You did formally join the War."

Braxiatel paused.

Then, "Eventually."

"Why?" said Jenny. "What changed things?"

"Rassilon did."

Jenny absorbed this, silently.

"He was determined to win the War," said Braxiatel. "Up to that point, most — but not all — Time Lords were fighting in the War. But a few were like me, and had chosen to stay out of it. Some were renegades, such as the Rani, who didn't care whether Gallifrey fell. Some had simply fled in terror, after their first battle. Hidden away in time and space."

"But not after that point?" Jenny asked.

"Rassilon decided that, to win this war, we needed every Gallifreyan," Braxiatel said. "All the renegades. All those who'd run away. Everyone who'd stayed out of the conflict. Rassilon found them all. And… 'reminded' them… of their duty to Gallifrey."

"You mean he tracked you all down and marched all of you back to Gallifrey at gunpoint?" Jenny clarified.

Braxiatel cleared his throat.

" _I_  came of my own free will," Braxiatel said. "Let's just… leave it at that."


	14. Chapter 14

The Braxiatel Collection

"…I have never harmed you," Braxiatel was explaining to Benny. "I have never purposely placed you in a position I felt you couldn't handle. And I think my actions saving the refugees, alone, has proven that I am trying to help mitigate the damages of this war."

Benny looked away. "I know. I've been awful to you. I'm just…" she took a deep breath. "You can't blame me for being upset."

"We've  _all_  lost friends, Bernice," Braxiatel told her.

"And you more than the rest of us," Benny agreed. Looking on him, for the first time in a long while, with nothing but sympathy. "This… Andextrion. You knew him well, didn't you? You haven't been the same since we heard news about that battle on Olyntra."

The Battle of Olyntra.

It had been one of the only battles fought in the same time period as the Collection.

Which meant they'd all been provided with up-to-date news coverage, the entire time.

Perhaps it was because they could finally see what effect it had on him, in real time. Or because Braxiatel had finally been unable to hold back his emotions and pretend to be above it all.

But the Collection looked on Braxiatel more sympathetically, since then.

"Andextrion and I… knew one another, at the Academy," Braxiatel replied. "Childhood friends. And he was a political supporter for many years, afterwards. I…"

He trailed off. Trying to staunch the flood of emotions that kept trying to drown him.

Struggling to remain calm and unshaken.

"Well," Braxiatel said, somewhat quieter, "I suppose none of that matters, now."

"You don't always have to pretend to be above it all," Benny told him. "Maybe it would help if you just… let it out. I mean, this can't be the first person you knew well who's died in this war."

Braxiatel said nothing to this.

"If you need someone to listen," Benny assured him, "I promise, I can…"

Something shot through the Collection. A sudden crack, in the air, which seared straight into Braxiatel's mind.

A telepathic communication, across time and space.

A Time Lord communication.

And everything else faded into nothing, as it echoed through Braxiatel's mind.

"Braxiatel?" Benny was saying, her hands now on his shoulders. Shaking him. "Irving?"

He blinked.

Then focused on her. And the outside world.

"Ah, Bernice," Braxiatel said. "Yes, I apologize. A… communication. From my own people. I regret, those have never been quite as pleasant as when we were able to use hypercubes." He turned around, trying to head back towards his desk. But stumbled.

Benny caught him.

"You look white as a sheet," Benny said. "And you're shaking. What is it? What did they say? Is…?" She cringed, as a nasty thought crept into her mind. "Is it over? Did they lose?"

"On the contrary, Gallifrey is still standing and everything is fine," Braxiatel replied, shaking Benny off. He composed himself, enough to reach his desk. "But I'm afraid, Bernice… that this is goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Benny seemed alarmed. "Brax… Irving… what's happened? Are we in danger? What's going on?"

Braxiatel activated a secret compartment in his desk. And brought out a bracelet-sized time ring.

"The Collection will be safe," Braxiatel assured her. "Everyone here will be fine. The protections I've installed, here, against the Daleks should hold against even the strongest barrage." He slipped the time ring into a pocket. "But… I cannot remain. I have things I must attend to. Alone."

He pushed past Benny.

Out the door to his study.

"And I must prepare," Braxiatel said.

* * *

They watched as Braxiatel finished packing, and put the last few of his affairs, at the Collection, in order.

"Peter was right," Bev commented. "He's really  _not_  the same Braxiatel as before."

"Even during the last occupation, he always seemed… in control," Adrien remarked. "I've never seen him like this."

"I have," Benny whispered. "In the Dynadum prison, when he thought… he'd just lost everything. And he knew there was no hope… for anyone."

All eyes turned to Benny.

"The War isn't going well, is it?" Peter guessed. "He's going off to fight."

"We don't know that," Adrien insisted. "Could be that his people found him, and he's running away to hide from them."

"No," Benny said. Her eyes still on Irving Braxiatel. "Peter's right. Whatever was in that message… it's convinced him to leave the Collection behind. And fight on the front lines."

"And his behind-the-scenes master-plan?" Bev prompted.

"I don't know," said Benny. Her voice shaking. "I… don't know if there ever was one."

They all went very quiet, then.

Thinking through the implications.

"If the Daleks have won," Adrien put in, hesitantly, "and gotten their hands on all that time technology…"

"I know." Benny put her arms around Peter. And kissed him. "I know."

Braxiatel finished his conversation. Then, spotting Benny, Peter, Adrien, and Bev, went over to them. His stride a little too slow and his face a little too pale.

Something was dead, in his eyes.

"How long until the Daleks invade?" said Peter. "How long do we have left?"

Braxiatel planted a smile on his face. "Why, the rest of your natural lives, of course! You're all perfectly safe. No danger."

All of them shot him pointed looks.

None believed him.

"Now," Braxiatel continued, still in a too-cheerful voice. "I'm certain the Collection is in safe hands. I've downloaded anything I think you'll need into Joseph, so you shouldn't have any problems. And if anything should go wrong… well…"

He faltered.

Then caught himself, and resumed his previous disposition.

"…I'm certain Beverly, here, will have an escape route," Braxiatel announced, with a grin at Bev. "Isn't that right?"

Still.

No one said a word.

"Cheer up!" Braxiatel urged them. Picking up his valise. "This isn't a funeral. Whatever happens, the Collection will survive. Perhaps… I'll even drop in for a visit, sometime."

"When?" Benny asked.

Braxiatel froze.

Then turned away from them. "I'd better go."

"Irving," Benny said. "Please. What's…?"

"It's been a pleasure getting to know you," Braxiatel told them, taking out his time ring. "All of you." He punched in the coordinates. Then looked up, at them. All masks falling away, in an instant.

Revealing a scared, desperate man. About to leave.

And knowing… he'd never come back.

"Take care of yourselves," he said. "Please."

Then he activated his Time Ring, and vanished from the Collection.

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

Braxiatel's arrival in the Panopitcon was met, as he had suspected, with clarions and alarm bells. And no sooner had Braxiatel had time to blink, he found himself surrounded by the Chancellery guard. All heavily armed, and ready to escort him.

But his Time Ring had still been let through the transduction barrier.

As he'd suspected.

"No need for the show of force," Braxiatel informed them. "You wanted me here. It's why you sent me that message in the first place."

Sure enough, the alarm bells and clarions shut off.

And the Chancellery guard all bowed, as the Lord Rassilon entered the room. A string of Time Lords behind him, in a fawning and devoted entourage.

"Braxiatel," Rassilon said, with that smooth, silky voice of his. He raised up his hands, examining Braxiatel. "The prodigal son, drawn back into the fold. To aid his people during their darkest hour."

"I did so before, my Lord," said Braxiatel, bowing. "And was exiled, as a result." He stood up, straight, once more. Meeting Rassilon's eyes with his own. "You know why I've returned. It's why you sent me that message, telling me she was missing. Now… where did you leave her?"

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Your own free will?" Jenny cried.

Braxiatel couldn't meet her eyes. "I wonder, sometimes," he muttered, "if leaving the Collection… was what made my plan fail. Perhaps… if I'd had more time to control the effects of what I'd put into motion…"

Jenny shook her head. Still couldn't believe it. "So why did you join in?" she insisted. "You knew you could win this for the Time Lords, if you stayed out of it until the last minute! What made you give that up?"

Braxiatel said nothing for a very long time.

"Gallifrey," he said, at last. "My duty to Gallifrey. That's all."

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

"A terrible tragedy!" Rassilon was saying, now that he was alone with Braxiatel. "Lost in the retreat, during the Battle of Cavab. One moment, she was there, fighting. And the next… we simply lost track of her. We do, naturally, regret the loss…"

"Cavab, in the Auroran Sector," said Braxiatel. Trying to remember the coordinates. "Around… alpha nine seven two, if I'm not mistaken."

Rassilon seemed suitably impressed.

"And judging by the ambient chatter from the other Time Lords, nearby," Braxiatel continued, "the battle took place in the Melonian Era, 7871. Around the time at which Ryoloi sculpted his famous masterpiece, 'The Bells of Clarfax.' His best marble work, I believe."

"Do I take it," Rassilon said, "that you've come to ask for a TARDIS, so you may search for her?"

Braxiatel bowed, deeply. "My Lord."

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"My first mission, during the war," Braxiatel told Jenny, "was to the planet Cavab, in the Auroran Sector. Do you know it?"

"One of the famous lost planets," Jenny recalled. Her face bent, as she recalled it. "It sort of… flickers into existence for a second or two. A blaze of light illuminating the whole system. Then… it vanishes. For centuries at a time."

"A result of the war," Braxiatel said. "A planet caught trapped in its last few seconds of existence. Forever."

Jenny took this all in.

Said nothing, her face dark and her eyes grim.

"You've heard stories like this, before," Braxiatel guessed.

"Almost no one ever talks about the war," Jenny replied. "Except to yell at one another about the battles they've fought in or haven't fought in. Whenever I ask, they just say, 'have you ever heard of such-and-such planet?' Usually a planet that's been twisted out of time, or destroyed, or made uninhabitable. And then they tell me they were there when it was destroyed."

Braxiatel had supposed this to be the case.

"And nothing else," Jenny concluded.

"They don't want to remember," said Braxiatel. "I went to Cavab, when it was on the verge of collapse. I needed to rescue some… prisoners of war, who'd been left behind." He shuddered, at the memory. "There was almost nothing left of the planet. And as I left… I had to watch it die, behind me."

"That's a big risk, to rescue some prisoners of war," Jenny said. "Anyone important?"

Braxiatel gave a small laugh.

"Some might say so," he muttered.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Braxiatel is the Doctor's brother. You can see the family resemblance, sometimes.

 

Cavab

Romana blinked open her eyes, struggling to breathe the air, as it burned with decaying time around her. The landscape was already dissolving, bits of it burning out of time, with residue of the Dalek weapon that the Time Lords called the Eternity Blaze.

They had countered with their own weapon — the Finger of Forever. Which had been constructed with much help from the artifacts Braxiatel had passed to her, throughout the war.

Now… the planet didn't have long left.

Romana squinted through the dimness. Trying to make out the face of the person who'd awakened her.

"Doctor?" Romana asked.

"Is currently half-way across the universe," came Braxiatel's voice, "and 3,000 years in the past. At the next campaign." He placed his arms around her shoulders, and tried to help her stand. "Can you walk?"

"With some assistance, yes," Romana said. Coughing, as the dust stirred around them. "He survived, then?"

"From what I can gather," Braxiatel said. "But it still remains to be seen if we will."

The planet shook.

The burning time flaring around them.

Romana gritted her teeth, trying to walk. But nearly fell over with her first step. Braxiatel caught her.

"It's my own stupid fault," Romana excused herself. Struggling forwards, through the pain, trying to make as though it didn't bother her. She suspected her leg was broken, though, and much more besides. "I was caught behind enemy lines. I knew it was only a matter of time before the Finger of Forever. I saw they were close to detecting it, and stalled them. Rather too well."

They both could smell reality charring around them. Romana caught sight of phantoms of those lost in the battle, crying out for her as they were absorbed in empty pockets of null time.

"The Doctor discovered I was missing, and rushed in to get me out," Romana concluded. Her jaw set and her eyes determined, as she stumbled ahead fast as she could. She was back to exuding as much of her authoritative and in-control air as she could. "We were caught in the blast, together. For a moment… I thought he'd…"

She nearly fell, again.

And Braxiatel clutched her, in an even tighter grip. Making sure she didn't fall or slow her step.

They could both see the TT capsule, just ahead of them. Nestled in the embers of a burning reality.

"Of course, if he was saved," said Romana, hobbling towards it with every scrap of energy left in her, "it's safe to assume that I was left behind on purpose."

Braxiatel grabbed for the key, and unlocked the TARDIS doors. Pulling her inside, just as the null time roared up again and began to eat away, even more, at the world around them.

He eased Romana to the ground, then snapped the doors shut.

"I didn't expect Rassilon to make his move so early," Romana said. Gritting her teeth, as she half-crawled to the console, and pulled herself back to her feet. "He must be more eager to get rid of me than I thought."

"You should rest," Braxiatel told her.

Romana gave a drawn-out sigh, as she began to help him program the console. "Why men are always so determined to prove they can pilot a six-person TARDIS by themselves is a mystery to me." She pulled a lever, and felt out and programmed the gravitic controls. "I know the Finger of Forever. If you're going to have any hope of escaping it, you'll need my help."

The capsule bucked, as the null time made the planet collapse in on itself.

Dragging the TARDIS towards the singularity.

"Increase materializers to full capacity," Romana commanded him. Throwing three switches into reverse. "Warp stabilizers to overload."

But that would never be enough, and Braxiatel clearly knew it.

With a cursory glance around himself, he threw everything into reverse, then ejected 3/4 of the interior architecture.

Throwing the TARDIS out of the planet, and back into the vortex.

"Three fourths," Romana commented. "With no way of assuring this room wasn't jettisoned. And all automatic teleport functions disabled due to the null field." She looked up at him, vaguely amused. "Yes. Every so often, you can see the family resemblance."

Braxiatel said nothing.

Focused on evading the Dalek ships that they'd attracted, now following them through the vortex.

"Including," Romana continued, limping to the other side of the console, "the rather infuriating way you two have of deciding you know best, without thinking to consult me, first." She threw down her fist, and punched in the override to Braxiatel's controls. "Back to Gallifrey, Braxiatel."

Braxiatel was quiet for a long time.

Then, "I don't think that would be wise."

"Oh, there's no doubt of that," Romana agreed. "But this is war, Braxiatel. And I intend to fight till the bitter end."

"Rassilon…"

"…is of little or no importance," Romana cut in. Her knuckles were turning white, as she struggled to keep herself upright through the pain. "I swore an oath to defend Gallifrey. And my oath still stands. Whatever Rassilon may or may not think."

She stood up straight and tall.

Staring Braxiatel down.

"Is that perfectly understood, Braxiatel?" Romana demanded.

Braxiatel met her eyes with his own, for a long time. Watching as she attempted to keep some dignity, despite her injuries.

Then gave in.

And returned them to Gallifrey.

"As you wish, my Lady," Braxiatel said.

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

Braxiatel had remained beside Romana, as she recovered. Until the moment before she regained consciousness, at which point he slipped out the door.

And attempted to use his Time Ring.

He wasn't terribly surprised that it didn't work.

Disappointed… but not surprised.

Almost certainly a bio-variance built into the transduction barrier. To make sure he couldn't leave if he wanted to.

Which meant that Braxiatel's next stop was to remove that particular aspect from the transduction barrier. And rebuild it to allow him passage, out.

It took him little time to crack the code for the doors.

The doors should have been impossible to decode, of course. But Braxiatel, himself, had once had a hand in programming the locking mechanisms. After that nasty business with the Apocalypse Element had exposed their vulnerabilities.

Braxiatel felt a vague sense of satisfaction, as the doors slid open, to allow him access to the Transduction Barrier controls. He raced inside.

But stopped, several steps in.

"Lord Braxiatel," said Rassilon, perched expectantly in the center of the room. "I suppose this means you wish to leave us."

Braxiatel hesitated.

"You wish to abandon Gallifrey at its time of greatest need," Rassilon continued, standing up to his full height, robes resplendent around him. "Forsake your duty as a Time Lord and run away like a terrified child."

"My Lord," Braxiatel said, bowing low. "Forgive me, but… I doubt I'd make a very good soldier."

Rassilon didn't drop his imperial glare.

"I came for a single purpose," Braxiatel said. "And with your rather generous assistance, I've accomplished that purpose. Now, if you don't mind…"

"If you truly wish to depart," Rassilon said, stepping away from the controls, "I cannot stop you. The choice is yours."

Braxiatel hesitated, again.

Certain that this was all part of some complex trap.

But still began to head past Lord Rassilon, towards the transduction barrier controls.

"Of course, it's a pity," Rassilon continued, "about the Lady Romanadvoratralundar."

Braxiatel froze in place.

Hand over the controls.

But he didn't press any of them.

"There are many on Gallifrey who still look up to her and follow her," Rassilon continued, his voice casual, yet pointed. "But this is a time of war. I cannot encourage the growth of factionalism or dissent amongst the ranks. That might lead to disaster."

Braxiatel dropped his hand, back to his side. "I see."

And turned to face Rassilon.

"And I suppose you're about to say something tiresome," said Braxiatel, "about how you'll keep her alive… if she proves useful."

"Something like that," Rassilon agreed. "It all depends… on you."

"I thought it might," Braxiatel muttered. He looked down at the time ring in his hand. Then back up at Rassilon. "Of course, you haven't considered the possibility that I might not care what happens to the Lady Romana."

"Oh, come now!" Rassilon replied, stepping towards Braxiatel. "You are one of her most fervent followers." Then, with a voice like ice, added, "She doesn't know quite how fervent. Does she?"

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Yes, I can see it, hiding behind that calm veneer," Rassilon observed. "That fire, when I mention her death. That hint of jealousy, when she speaks of the Doctor. That second of bliss, when she looks at you as her savior."

"I think you must be mistaken," Braxiatel said, slowly.

Rassilon gestured at the transduction barrier controls. "Then leave!" he said. "Prove you care nothing for her at all. Save yourself and leave her behind, to die."

Braxiatel didn't move. For several long minutes.

Then, with a sigh, he surrendered the time ring to Rassilon.

"What do you wish me to do, my Lord?" Braxiatel asked.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Of course, I was less useful as a soldier on the front lines," Braxiatel explained to Jenny. "That much was clear. I was mostly used to build… rather nasty weapons. Or help devise strategies."

"But you did fight," Jenny said. "Everyone here acknowledges that."

"We all fought," Braxiatel said. Trying to drive away memories… of screaming Daleks and Time Lords dying, all around him… of time twisting and contorting and being ripped apart… of planets burned to dust simply to deny the Daleks access to the minerals the planets contained…

He shook his head.

And all phantoms of the past fell away.

"Vyonda, the fall of the Herzo Gates, the Climb of the Regoz Tower," said Braxiatel. "And more battles. More than I care to list — or remember. I did my part, for the War. I saw… more than enough."


	16. Chapter 16

Gallifrey, during the Time War

"The last assault trapped the Cult of Skaro on Ersyion," Romana informed Braxiatel. "With Drandiax dead, the units holding Ersyion under siege need a leader. I'm headed out in five microspans."

She had recovered from her ordeal.

And Braxiatel knew that, so long as he worked for Lord Rassilon… Rassilon wouldn't leave her behind. Not again.

Rassilon would make every effort to keep her alive.

To keep Braxiatel here.

"I can end this," Braxiatel promised her. "I can save the Time Lords. But you must leave." He took her hand in his. "Please."

"No."

"Romana…"

"From the day I looked into the untempered schism," Romana interrupted him, "I knew my duty was to defend and protect Gallifrey and the universe. I will not put aside my duty so I can run and hide."

It was this very strength and determination that had made Braxiatel's admiration for her grow, over the length of their acquaintance.

Along with her intellect. And her ability to twist a situation to her advantage.

He wished, for once, that her intellect had been less keen. So he could manage to trick her into leaving with him, and saving herself.

"The strategy is perfectly sound," Romana insisted. "Maxel is already driving the Dalek forces from 10,000 years in the past. And Bacarza from 10,000 years in the future. If the Doctor can lure the Dalek forces in the present to come to the aid of the Cult of Skaro, we can trap all those forces within a temporal weave."

"Given the right catalyst," Braxiatel muttered. "Administered at precisely the right point in time."

"Which I am assuming you will provide," Romana replied. She handed him coordinates. "The precise spacio-temporal location. Show these to no one. I can't risk the information being used for some… other purpose."

Her eyes flicked over to the Rani, who was approaching in a huff, from the other side of the hallway.

And Braxiatel took her point.

That was the danger of having every single Time Lord working together — not all wished to cooperate. And some could care less if Gallifrey burned to ashes.

"I trust you," Romana told him.

Just before she left.

Braxiatel tucked the coordinates away, before the Rani could spot them.

"Well?!" the Rani demanded of him. "If we're going to perfect this catalyst, we might as well get on with it. I've nothing better to do."

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"I worked with several other renegades, to perfect important weapons that proved vital to the war effort," Braxiatel explained. He paused. Then added, "As I recall, you've encountered the Rani."

Jenny laughed. "Oh, yes."

"That dreadful business with the Shoboguns," Braxiatel affirmed. "Three years ago. You were quite impressive, discovering and stopping her rather appalling experiments."

"Well, I'm always quite impressive," Jenny replied, with a grin. "How did you manage to get along with the Rani?"

"During the War?" Braxiatel gave a long sigh. "Not terribly well, I'll admit."

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

"So they finally caught you," the Rani said, as she worked on composing the catalyst. "Dragged you here with the other renegades." She tipped a test-tube, making the solution bubble. "How did they do it? Threaten to take away your statues and all your pretty paintings?"

She said it in a mocking tone.

Braxiatel pretended she hadn't.

"Something like that," Braxiatel muttered.

She left, to gather some ambient temporal wash. And Braxiatel stepped in, to analyze her catalyst. As he'd suspected, she'd made it kill everyone — both Daleks and Time Lords. Braxiatel glanced back, made sure she was busy, then modified it.

Stepped away, just in time, to resume the construction of his own device, to administer the catalyst.

She returned only seconds later.

"And yourself?" said Braxiatel.

"Oh, what you'd expect," the Rani replied, administering the temporal wash with a pipette, slowly. "They destroyed the planet I ruled. Turned all my allies against me. Foiled my plans to escape and then waited until I was about to die… before scooping me out of time and offering me my life in exchange for helping them."

She stopped.

Frowned.

"I suppose it would be difficult to argue with that," said Braxiatel.

The Rani turned on him. "You altered my formula!"

"Did I?" Braxiatel headed back towards her. "How remiss of me. Here, let me ensure you don't alter it, again."

The Rani snatched it away.

"Don't be stupid," she hissed. Looked round herself, suspiciously. Then leaned in, to whisper to him. "Can't you see what an opportunity this is? We're both here against our will. If we kill everyone on the battlefield, when we deliver the catalyst — Time Lord and Dalek alike — the two of us can get away from Gallifrey! Escape!"

"Yes, that's rather what I expected you to say," Braxiatel replied. "But unlike you and the other renegades, I wasn't banished from Gallifrey. I left in order to save it from Pandora."

And save…  _her_ … from Pandora.

Of course.

The Rani's face contorted into utter disgust.

"So let's not get into long, tiresome debates about killing our own people on that battlefield, to make our escape," Braxiatel said, forcing the formula out of her hands. "And instead, discuss something of more interest. What do you think of the Grand Masters of New Baroque style painting, in the second neoclassical era? I find them really rather marvelous."

The Rani glared at him.

Not saying a word, as he finished her work for her.

"Of course, Laymaraque Philippe was always considered the father of the New Baroque masters," Braxiatel continued. "But I believe his work was very heavily influenced by the earlier paintings of—"

"Someone… on that battlefield," the Rani repeated.

Braxiatel darted his eyes over to her. "I'm sorry?"

"So that's how they lured you here," the Rani said. "Rassilon found someone you wanted to protect. And threatened that someone until you turned up."

Braxiatel said nothing.

Turning his full attention back to his work.

The Rani laughed, bitterly. "As if I couldn't guess who," she said. "I knew it was you who helped him and his granddaughter escape in that Type 40 TARDIS, all those centuries ago. Blood thicker than water?"

Braxiatel decided the best thing he could do, in this situation, was ignore her.

And instead, continue to enlighten her on topics of more interest.

"The sculpture style of the New Baroque era does leave something to be desired," Braxiatel went on. Mixing in the final chemical for the catalyst. "I much prefer the works of… Michelangelo, on Earth. Or the Great Petula, in the Zardon Empire."

"Listen to yourself," the Rani muttered, turning away from him. "You're deranged."

Braxiatel finished the catalyst. "Well. Pot, kettle…" He handed the test tubes back to her. "Here. You can check my work."

The Rani snatched them away. "And I suppose if I modify the results so it kills anyone you like, you'll start droning on about art, again."

"Naturally."

The Rani looked it over. Then shook her head. "Useless. This would never work." Threw it away, and started from scratch. Making something that would actually wipe the Daleks out, without endangering any of Braxiatel's precious Time Lords in the process. "You know, Rassilon offered the Meddling Monk half your Collection, to get him to join the War."

"And I wish him the best of luck in obtaining it," Braxiatel replied, cheerily. Returning to his own work, on the delivery system. "Now. Let's see if we can't help turn this battle into a victory."

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Were you fighting alongside Dad?" Jenny asked. "What did he do, during the War?"

Braxiatel paused. Turned back, to face Jenny. "I take it he hasn't mentioned anything to you, himself, then?"

Jenny shook her head.

"No," said Braxiatel. "He wasn't proud of his actions. He fought because he had to. And, I'll admit, he was quite capable. But he wouldn't thank me for telling you stories that make him out to be some sort of… war hero."

"Oh, come on!" Jenny said. "I won't turn into a soldier just because you tell me a few stories."

Braxiatel thought a moment.

"There was this one time," he said, giving in. "I remember — I could hear him from half-way across the capital. He was blowing up at Romana about… well… something or other. You know how he gets, at times."

"When he feels something's wrong," Jenny agreed. "Romana mentioned that to me, once. She said that she and Dad used to get into really loud arguments, all the time, during the War."

Braxiatel certainly remembered that.

It was hard not to.

Jenny leaned her head against her hand. Face bent into thought. "She said something funny, about that, actually," she commented. "I asked her why they argued — because didn't she trust Dad to defend Gallifrey? And she said…"

Jenny paused.

"She mentioned," Braxiatel guessed, "that he destroyed it?"

Jenny looked up at Braxiatel. "No," she answered. "Romana said… she trusted  _you_  to always defend Gallifrey. Not Dad."

Braxiatel didn't know what to say to this.

"She trusted Dad," Jenny continued, "to always follow his conscience."


	17. Chapter 17

Gallifrey, during the Time War

"…is madness, Romana!" the Doctor was shouting. "Complete and utter madness!"

"And I suppose you'd rather let the Daleks take that planet," said Romana, "and use it as a stepping stone to conquer the rest of the Persu System?"

"There are people on that planet!" the Doctor retorted. "Innocents, who have nothing to do with this! And you just want to… wipe them out?!"

"That's Rassilon's strategy," Romana agreed. "And I concur."

"You're as mad as he is!" the Doctor shouted.

Braxiatel could hear them bickering, from several hallways down. Their arguments had grown louder and more frequent, as the War continued. And the Daleks advanced further and further towards Gallifrey.

"Since Rassilon returned, we've actually begun to hold our own against the Daleks!" Romana snapped.

"And you think that's enough for him?" the Doctor slammed his hands down. "Romana, even if he does defeat the Daleks, we'll just be swapping one group of megalomaniac supremacists for another. If you hadn't noticed, he wants to reshape the universe to look like  _him_!"

"And it's talk like that which does nothing but stir up needless dissent and factionalism," Romana replied. "Rassilon is right, Doctor. If we don't stand unified, Gallifrey will fall."

A second of silence.

Then…

"Don't call me that," the Doctor said. Throwing open the door to her office. "Not anymore."

"It's either Doctor, or Fred," Romana retorted, emerging behind him and crossing her arms.

"Oh, because that's original," the Doctor said, throwing his arms up into the air. "I don't know what to do with you, Romana. You've thrown out everything you ever believed in."

"I'm defending Gallifrey," Romana said.

"By demanding the sacrifice of everyone who gets in Rassilon's way?!" The Doctor turned away, in disgust. "I'm not standing for it, Romana. You should be ashamed."

The moment he turned away, a little smile flickered across Romana's face.

As she caught Braxiatel's eye.

"Always follows his conscience," she mouthed.

Before turning back into her office, and shutting the door.

Leaving Braxiatel to marvel over her cleverness. Really, quite brilliant. Romana knew that, if she denounced Rassilon's plans publicly, she would only bring the axe down on her own neck. But… if she defended them to everyone… even the Doctor…

The Doctor turned.

And noticed Braxiatel.

"Oh, it's you," said the Doctor. "Don't tell me you've gone mad, too."

"I suppose that might depend on which school of philosophy you adhere to," Braxiatel replied. "And what attitude they have concerning—"

"Good enough for me," the Doctor interrupted. He ran past Braxiatel, grabbing him up by the wrist. "Come on. We're rescuing the people on that planet — before Rassilon has a chance to send in the battle TARDISes."

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"There was a planet, Huyula," Braxiatel told Jenny. "It was of strategic importance to the Daleks. We'd been maintaining a tentative grip over the planet, but our grip was slipping. Rassilon had decided that the best thing to do… was destroy the planet before the Daleks could get their hands on it. A surprise attack, no warning. And no… evacuation."

Jenny stared at him. "But that's immoral!" she insisted. "It's barbaric!"

"It's war, Jenny," said Braxiatel. "You've seen wars, before. You know what happens."

Jenny did.

But she clearly didn't like it.

"Think of the Cyberwars, in the Tiberion Spiral Galaxy," Braxiatel said. "Or the Datrantine Wars, in the outer Kolthu Cluster. Even the philosopher Bartel on Sirus 8 said that morals, in war, are like…"

"I was born in a war," Jenny cut in. "Everyone told me that sacrifices needed to be made, and that to stop fighting meant death for everyone. Turned out, the war had only been going on for seven days. And so many people had died, that no one remembered what they were fighting for!"

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Maybe sometimes, there needs to be someone who says the things we don't want to hear," Jenny argued. "Maybe that's better for everyone."

"You do take after him," Braxiatel remarked. "Quite strongly, it seems."

Jenny straightened in her seat. "I consider that a compliment." She leaned forwards. "So go on. You heard Romana and Dad fighting over the destruction of Huyula. And then what?"

"He took me with him," said Braxiatel. "To evacuate the planet. He was… well…" Braxiatel thought a moment. Trying to put this right. "It's funny, with those you know very well but lose touch with. In some ways, they're very different. In others… just the same."

* * *

The Doctor's TARDIS, during the Time War

"So this is the TARDIS you chose to steal," Braxiatel remarked, as they headed towards the planet. He shook his head. "You know, I did make sure there was a fully functional Type 60 in the TARDIS bays, ready and waiting for you and Susan to make your escape."

"Oh, everyone's a critic," the Doctor complained. Pointed to the console. "Hold that bottle-cap down. Gravitic stabilizers."

Sure enough, the gravitic stabilizer buttons had been replaced by bottle-caps.

And, apparently, were broken to the point that they required physical contact at all times, in order to work, properly.

"Where are the compensation relays?" Braxiatel asked, holding the gravitic stabilizers in place. "Your temporal drift buffers feel like they're on the blink."

The Doctor gave him a blank stare.

"Oh dear," Braxiatel said. "Don't tell me you've never thought to set—"

"My TARDIS, my rules," the Doctor cut in, sharply. Then, as if to prove it, grabbed up a mallet and clunked it down on the controls — hard. Making sparks fly everywhere. "No more Big Braxiatel showing Little Thete what's what, now."

"Yes," Braxiatel muttered. "Although, technically, it's not  _your_  TARDIS — you stole it. With my help. And… come to think of it, I don't recall you ever  _passing_ the pilot's license test, to fly…"

The Doctor interrupted him by crashing the mallet down onto the central console, again. Making the whole thing light up in sparks.

"Would you please stop that?" Braxiatel demanded. "Unless you wish us to perish before we arrive."

"Can't," the Doctor explained. Hitting the console again, making the TARDIS zig-zag out of control. "Trying to run a blockade. Best way for it!"

Another smash.

And the whole TARDIS buckled.

"By taking down the shielding and all the defenses?" Braxiatel cried. Struggling to remain on his feet. "Listen, I've run more blockades than you've had hot dinners. And this is not the way to go about…!"

Smash!

Crunch!

And Braxiatel nearly tumbled to the ground, under the force of the jolt that followed.

"How about you worry less about me piloting my rather incredible ship," the Doctor told him, "and concern yourself with trying to stop your girlfriend from going completely mad."

Braxiatel did a double-take.

Nearly lost his grip on the gravitic stabilizers.

"I beg your pardon?" Braxiatel said. "Are you implying something?"

"Oh, don't be like that," the Doctor groaned. "I traveled with Ian and Barbara for years. I can recognize the signs." He switched the controls over to manual, then kicked the underside of the console. "You joined the War for  _her_ , didn't you?"

"I'm certain I have no idea what you're talking about," Braxiatel maintained. He threw up his hands, in irritation. "And furthermore…!"

The Doctor lunged for the gravitic stabilizers. "Don't let go of…!"

Too late.

As they crashed down to the planet.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

Jenny couldn't stop cracking up, as she heard Braxiatel describe the dialogue between himself and the Doctor, onboard the Doctor's TARDIS.

"And you say  _I_  sound like my dad!" Jenny said. "You should see what happens when you get me and my sister together. We sound just like that!"

Braxiatel smiled, and nodded.

Carefully omitting, from his summary of the story, the part of their conversation that had concerned Romana.

"We crashed onto the planet," said Braxiatel. "There was a small garrison, there. Overwhelmed by a swarm of Daleks. It was clear why the planet had been slated for demolition — there was no chance. For anyone."

"But you saved all the people, right?" Jenny asked.

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Braxiatel?"

"We… did what we could," said Braxiatel. Then, with a sigh, "We arrived too late. To be honest… there wasn't much we  _could_ do."

* * *

Perseus Sentrus, during the Time War

They didn't go straight back to Gallifrey, once they were done.

They stopped off on a planet the Doctor knew. Perseus Sentrus. And took a little time off, so they could absorb what had just happened.

All the people they'd failed to save.

What they'd seen the Daleks do.

What they'd seen their own people do.

"The longer this war goes on," the Doctor said, sitting down on the ground, "the more… I just want it to end."

His face was draped in shadows.

And he looked very old. Very tired. Very weary and worn out.

"Even if the Daleks win," the Doctor said. "Even if we all die together, Daleks and Time Lords alike. I just… want it over." He paused. Then, "No. I want it never to have started, at all."

For a few seconds, neither said anything.

Both staring up at the stars, now so unfamiliar after the Time War had changed the night sky.

"Perhaps," Braxiatel ventured, "you may get your wish."

The Doctor snapped his head around. Suddenly animated. "What?"

Braxiatel said nothing.

Just shrugged.

"You have a plan," the Doctor realized. Then laughed. "Oh, of course you do. That's why you stayed out of the War! So you could swoop in at the last minute with some masterplan. That'd be very you."

Braxiatel remained silent.

And the Doctor's enthusiasm dropped, a touch. "And since you're not telling me the plan," the Doctor continued, "I can only assume… you've done something I wouldn't like, in order to put that plan into place."

"It's not finished, yet," said Braxiatel… specifically avoiding his question. "I've been distracted, lately. It's difficult to organize all the bits of it. I need… more time."

"In a Time War," said the Doctor, "that's in short supply."

"Quite."

They stared up at the night sky.

Saying nothing, for a long moment.

Then the Doctor got back to his feet. His eyes very old and very tired.

"I'm sick of this war," he told Braxiatel, heading back to his ship. "I'm sick of letting people die. Whatever you've done, whatever you still have to do… so long as it ends the War, then I'm for it. You have my full support."

Braxiatel thought of all the people he'd left, on the Collection.

The stories they'd told him, about the alternate-Braxiatel.

The one he was still communicating with, on a regular basis. Trying to manipulate, to make sure his own plans would go perfectly.

To save Gallifrey.

Save the Time Lords.

Stop the War.

"Even if I've…?" Braxiatel began.

"Yes," the Doctor cut in. Opened the door to his ship, and stepped inside. "And please don't tell me more. I don't want to know."


	18. Chapter 18

Gallifrey, present-day

"Your father and I spoke, after that failed mission," Braxiatel told Jenny. "About the War. And how to end it. I told him I had a plan. And I think… that gave him the hope he needed to go on."

"How long did the War last?" Jenny asked.

Braxiatel paused.

Thinking.

"I… don't know," he admitted. "I don't think anyone knows. By the end, the whole fabric of time started falling apart around us. People dying and coming back just to die again. Reality skipping time tracks like a broken record. Battles being won or lost before they were ever fought. And past battles… coming undone and unravelling, around us. To be fought again."

Jenny cringed.

Trying to imagine what it would be like to fight in those conditions… but she couldn't imagine it.

"That's why we designed the Moment," Braxiatel said. "A way to finally get all those timelines straight, so that they could be condensed… to a single point. And then… the explosion. Enough power to destroy a world or fleet forever, and make sure they stayed dead."

The Moment.

Jenny's eyes went wide. "Did  _you_  build it?" she asked.

"One of many who did," Braxiatel replied. "I can scarcely take all the credit. But… I  _did_  see…"

He trailed off.

Hesitating, once more.

"…I did see its potential," Braxiatel admitted, at last. His voice very quiet. "I may have had the ability to  _communicate_  with my other selves — but that wasn't enough. To make my plan work, I required this… energy field, surrounding the Collection. Problem was, I knew that energy field would be conquered and used by a race called the Dynadum. Bernice and the others had told me so."

He ran a hand through his hair.

"But I still needed that energy field," said Braxiatel. "I tried warning my alternate-self about the Dynadum. I told him — make sure you deal with the Dynadum before you start mucking about with it! But… apparently… it didn't work."

"I don't understand," said Jenny.

"Whatever the alternate-Braxiatel did, with the Dynadum," said Braxiatel, "it caused the energy field to be depleted. And if I was going to save the Time Lords… I needed the field at full strength! I needed that power, to bring them…!"

He stopped.

Cleared his throat.

"Yes, well," Braxiatel resumed. "I suppose the long and the short of it is… I needed something more than simply contacting my other selves. I needed something that could actually transport me through the mess of timestreams before-after-and-during the War. I needed to be able to manipulate it all, myself."

"Transport yourself through your own…?" Jenny thought back. "But Dad said that's what happened to him when he used…!"

"Yes, well, naturally," Braxiatel replied. He ran a hand down his face. "Unfortunately, it seemed the Moment was more… powerful than we first anticipated. Then some cretin went in and mucked about with it enough that it became sentient. I can't recall who."

Jenny nodded, slowly.

"No one never told me, of course, that it was sentient," Braxiatel continued. "I only learned of it when I tested the Moment — intending to cross into my own past and defeat the Dynadum, myself."

"And the Moment talked to you?" Jenny asked.

Braxiatel sat down in his chair. His eyes fixed on Jenny, the whole time. "What it showed me…" he said, very quietly. "What it could do…" He shook his head. "It was too powerful, Jenny. It was terrifying. I locked it up, and made sure no one ever used it."

"It scared you," said Jenny.

"It scared all of us," said Braxiatel. "Even your father."

"What did it show you?" Jenny asked.

"The truth."

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

Braxiatel had slipped down into the secret lab, when no one else was about. Just to tinker with the Moment, see if it could do what he needed it to. If he could just… if only he could find the Dynadum, and take care of…!

"I really wish you'd stop that," came a familiar voice, from behind him. "How would you feel if someone kept coming in and sticking their hands inside you?"

Braxiatel's breath caught in his throat.

Because he knew that voice.

"Bernice," Braxiatel said, turning to face her. There she was, standing right in front of him. Except… she couldn't be! Could she? "Benny, how…?"

"Guess again," said the replica of Bernice Summerfield. Crossing her arms. "I don't know — maybe I should have shown up as someone in your future, not your past. I think you're finding this a little hard to cope with."

Braxiatel looked between the replica, and the machine he'd been tampering with. A shudder came over him, as he suddenly realized… the only explanation.

"Oh, dear," Braxiatel muttered. "This shouldn't have happened."

"My being alive, you mean?" the Moment shrugged. "Well.  _I'm_ pretty happy about it. Even if you're not." She stepped forwards. "What's the matter, Brax? You built me to be able to see any point in time. And wipe it out. Isn't that what you want?"

Braxiatel found himself lost for words.

"Or… no," the Moment said, reflecting. "That's what the others want. But not what  _you_ want." She stepped even closer to him. " _You_  want to be able to step through and interact with your own timeline. You built me… so you could break the First Law of Time."

"I… have a responsibility," Braxiatel insisted. "A destiny. I've known, since I was eight years old —  _I_ will end this war. I will save the Time Lords."

The replica of Benny laughed. " _You_?! I don't think so."

Braxiatel stared.

Unnerved.

"You've been lying to yourself since age eight," the Moment told him. "Brilliant!" She stepped forwards. "Instead of bringing you to your past, Braxiatel… how about I show you your future? How this war  _really_  ends?"

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Of course, I didn't want to believe what the Moment said," Braxiatel told Jenny. "Or what she showed me. It just… couldn't possibly…!"

"She told you that you wouldn't end the war?" Jenny guessed. "Because Dad would?"

Braxiatel stared down at the table, in front of him. "And… in the end, she was right," he muttered. "About everything."

"Is that what stopped you from carrying out your plan?" Jenny said. "Because you knew you wouldn't be the one to end the War?"

"On the contrary," Braxiatel replied, "I went through with my plan. When the Iron Leaves fell, and Rassilon announced his Ultimate Sanction… I met with Romana. And she told me the solution to my problem with the Dynadum."

"What happened?" Jenny asked.

Braxiatel told her.

Everything.

* * *

Gallifrey, during the Time War

He trudged through the sand, outside the capital. Was able to see her, in the distance — waiting for him at the entrance to a cave. She looked even more disheveled and worn-out than usual.

"The Iron Leaves have fallen," said Romana. "The Dagger of Rassilon failed. The Daleks are coming — and there's nothing we can do to stop them."

"This is the end," Braxiatel confirmed.

"And Rassilon knows it," said Romana. "He's preparing what he calls 'the Ultimate Sanction'. He's utterly mad, Braxiatel! He's determined to win this war, even if he has to destroy the universe to do so."

Braxiatel frowned. "Destroy the universe?"

Romana explained the whole thing to him. The Ultimate Sanction, in complete detail.

"Whatever your plan is, Braxiatel," Romana concluded, "you need to put it into action, right now. Before the Daleks wipe us out — and before Rassilon begins his Ultimate Sanction."

Braxiatel hesitated. " _My_  plan?"

"Yes; the Doctor told me you had a plan," Romana said. "That's why I wanted to meet you out here. Where I was sure no one could overhear. Whatever your plan is, I'm in. But we have to do it now."

"Yes, well… there's a small problem," said Braxiatel. "With energy."

"Energy," Romana repeated.

At which point, Braxiatel outlined his plan to Romana. And explained how it hinged on the power he could get from that energy field — and its depletion, due to the Dynadum.

"The energy field is at half power," said Braxiatel. "Perhaps less. Not nearly enough for the purpose."

Romana said nothing for a long moment.

Pacing, in front of Braxiatel.

"Then maybe… it's time," she muttered, "to finally use our little secret."

"Secret," Braxiatel repeated.

Romana looked up at him. "You know I met the Doctor," she said, "while seeking out segments to the Key to Time."

Yes, he did.

"The White Guardian predicted that at some point, in our future, we'd need to use it," said Romana. "To stop everything from falling apart. So when the Doctor and I met at the Chaos Pool, to destroy the Key to Time… we didn't destroy it. We only pretended we did."

"I thought the segments were leaking energy," said Braxiatel. "Enough to collapse the universe."

"We used the Chaos Pool to fix the damage," Romana said. "The Doctor hid the Key to Time, and we both lied to the rest of the universe — pretending it had been destroyed. It was the secret we swore we'd go to our graves with, if need be. But we both knew… one day… we'd need that Key. For something like this."

Braxiatel met Romana's eyes.

"The Key to Time, combined with the remaining energy from your energy field," Romana said, "should be enough to do what you're planning. But you'll need the Doctor to get it for you."

The Doctor…

Braxiatel remembered what the Moment had said. Looking deep into time…

_You will not end this War, Braxiatel. You cannot save the Time Lords. The only one who can… is the Doctor._

Was this what she meant?

"I'll stay behind," Romana told him. "Someone needs to distract Rassilon, so you can put the plan into action. After all, if your plan succeeds… Rassilon will never have been resurrected from the Matrix. And Rassilon will do anything to prevent that."


	19. Chapter 19

Gallifrey, present-day

“So I left Romana,” Braxiatel continued.  “And went to find the Doctor.  He was wary to concede that the Key to Time still existed… that it _hadn’t_ been destroyed in the Chaos Pool… but eventually, he agreed to surrender it.  And we departed Gallifrey, to put the plan into action.”

“But what _was_ the plan?” Jenny asked.  “What were you planning to do?”

“Precisely what I promised Benny,” said Braxiatel.  “What I promised the Doctor.”

“To stop the War,” Jenny said.

Braxiatel shook his head.  “To save the Time Lords,” he said, “by erasing the War from history.  As if it had never happened.”

Jenny stared.

Her jaw dropping.

“No traces of Daleks, anywhere in the universe,” Braxiatel mused.  “The Time Lords back to the way they were, before this ever started.  Rassilon back in his tomb in the Dark Tower!  And all those planets destroyed, all those races wiped out, all that damage done… undone.  In an instant.”

“How?” Jenny demanded.  “That’s… it’s… impossible!”

“Not quite,” said Braxiatel.

Jenny’s eyes demanded an explanation.

Braxiatel gave a sad little smile.  “It was something I discovered, just after I left the planet Legion,” he said.  “One of Benny’s adventures, except it went hideously wrong.  During that incident, I ran into a group calling themselves… the Epoch.”

* * *

 

Previously, on the Adventures of Bernice Summerfield

The Epoch had existed since the beginning of the universe.

Robots designed to tamper with time and continuity.  Provided a timeline had been completely isolated, they could map and remap reality, no matter how temporally complicated or paradoxical that reality was.  And all according to the designs of a single mind — the Occulent — whom they had selected to rule them.

When Braxiatel had met them, that single mind had been Bernard Springmore, a man obsessed with living forever and remapping Bernice Summerfield out of existence.  For no very good reason at all.

Braxiatel remembered…

It was long, _long_ before the Time War.  Back when he’d been living on Legion.  One moment, he’d been floating away in an escape capsule, and the next…

He found himself at the mercy of the Epoch.

“You are Irving Braxiatel,” the Epoch told him.

“Am I, indeed?” Braxiatel replied.  “And how would you know that?”

“We know of your connection to Bernice Summerfield.”

“Do you, now?” Braxiatel tried to scratch an itch on his ankle, but couldn’t in the cramped escape pod.  “And… dare I ask how?  Or why?”

“We know Bernice Summerfield of old.  We are the Epoch.”

That had sounded rather ominous.  “Funny — she never mentioned you,” Braxiatel said.  “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m rather—”

“You will forget her, Irving Braxiatel,” they demanded.  “You will become part of the Scheme.”

“Will I, indeed?” Braxiatel felt a little smug, at the time.  He’d known that, as a Time Lord, no one could touch him.  “Wrong again, I fear.”

“It is too late,” the Epoch replied.  “Your memories are now changing.  Soon, you will remember nothing.”

Braxiatel’s smugness had fallen away, as he’d begun to panic.  He could feel his memories falling away and changing — feel _himself_ changing — as he was remapped into a completely different person.

With a completely different past.

It shouldn’t have been possible!  Not with a Time Lord!

But it had happened.

He’d believed himself to be a human from Earth, an actor who played a role in an audio drama in the UK.  Time had remapped itself around him, to force him into that role.  And if Benny Summerfield hadn’t saved him from it… the remapping would have become permanent.

He’d have become human — and always would have been.

Of course, Benny _had_ saved the day, in the end.  As she always did.  She’d undone the Epoch’s scheme, defeated Bernard Springmore, and set the universe back to how it should be.  The Epoch technology had shut itself down.

Which was when… Braxiatel received a message.  A very special message.

From a future-self.

Regarding… his own scheme.  To save the Time Lords.

* * *

 

Gallifrey, present-day

“But that’s… ridiculous!” Jenny insisted.  “Time Lords exist outside of time.  You can’t just use some nifty bit of tech to reshape and remap everything that composes a Time Lord!”

Braxiatel leaned across the table.  “But the Epoch _could_ ,” he insisted.  “The Epoch _did_.  I was remapped — just as easily as all of Benny’s other friends.  And if Benny hadn’t rescued me… I would have been human forever.”

“It’s… it’s…” Jenny couldn’t think of anything to say.

“So after Benny defeated the Epoch, and reset time to undo all their timeline tampering,” said Braxiatel, “I got a message.  From a future self.”

“…who’d realized that if the Epoch could use that technology to remap _you_ ,” Jenny realized, “then you could use that same technology… to remap Gallifrey.”

“And return it to the way it was, before the War,” Braxiatel agreed.  “By using my own memories as a template.  Yes.”

“But what about the War?” said Jenny.  “All those timelines, getting fractured and unravelling around you!  The remapping wouldn’t stick.”

“That’s why we needed the Key to Time,” said Braxiatel.  “To trap the War and all its instabilities within a very sophisticated Time Lock.  And then rewrite the universe so the Daleks, and any effects of the War, were wiped clean.”

“That’s… that’s…!”  Jenny shook her head.  “It’s brilliant.”

“Yes, if it had worked,” Braxiatel replied.  “It would have saved the Time Lords.  Reverted us back to what we’d been before…”

He looked out the window.

At what they had become.

And sighed, deeply.

“I wish it had worked,” Braxiatel said.  “Because this place… this planet… isn’t Gallifrey.  Not anymore.”

“What happened?” Jenny asked.

* * *

 

What happened?

What happened was that Braxiatel hadn’t told the Doctor the whole plan.  He’d told him about the Time Lock.  Wiping the Daleks out of time.  But… stopped there.

And never mentioned the Epoch.

Or their technology.

“Why not?” Jenny demanded of Braxiatel, when she heard this.  “Why didn’t you tell him the whole truth?”

“Because Bernice Summerfield was once his companion,” said Braxiatel.  “And I didn’t have the time or the energy to argue with him, over her treatment.  I felt it was better to just… get on with it.”

Jenny nodded.

“There were other factors, too,” Braxiatel muttered.  “The Doctor had just discovered that a former companion of his had gone mad and nearly torn apart the Earth — and he couldn’t forgive himself for not going back and stopping it.  That played a part.”

Jenny frowned.  “I remember hearing about that.”

“And I never did find out the full truth of what happened to that energy field,” Braxiatel continued.  “Or just how depleted it had become.  I assumed… it was still mostly intact.”

Jenny’s eyes went wide.  “But it wasn’t?”

Braxiatel shook his head.

“So what happened?” said Jenny.

“The Doctor and I went to the planet Winoli,” said Braxiatel, “a small planet with a dimensional weak spot running straight through the middle of it.  We set up the equipment, there.”


	20. Chapter 20

_That's as far as I wrote. The rest is a summary. Until the last scene._

* * *

Cut to the Doctor and Braxiatel, setting the whole thing up.

It's important, for the sake of the story, to remember that the Doctor has  _just_  learned about Elizabeth destroying the Earth to escape her UNIT prison. That happens to be foremost on his mind, right now.

Daleks nearly catch them, but the Doctor and Braxiatel evade the Daleks.

They power everything up and switch the whole thing on. For a few seconds, they think it's going to work. The machinery spirals out this beautiful vortex, and both the Doctor and Braxiatel can see the timeline isolating and the remap beginning, exactly as Braxiatel had planned.

Then the energy runs out.

Turns out, the energy field wasn't half-depleted, it was  _completely_  depleted. Without that, they can't tap into the Key to Time's power properly, and the whole thing starts to self-destruct.

The Doctor and Braxiatel frantically try to jury-rig the system, so it'll work.

"I found it!" Braxiatel realizes, as he sorts through timelines with his Epoch technology. "A diverging point. A place of unspeakable energy!" He rewires everything so he can tap into that. "Feed that to the Key to Time, and…"

"No, wait!" the Doctor shouts, lunging for Braxiatel. "It's unstable. It'll…!"

The whole thing explodes around them both.

The Epoch technology fuses with the timeline isolation technology, and a sudden rush of power from the Key to Time activates them both and floods the system. Psychic feedback from the Epoch technology combines with temporal and pan-universal feedback, and both the Doctor and Braxiatel get swept up by it.

Braxiatel, his mind plugged into the system, passes out.

The Doctor tries to save the situation, but winds up instead connecting himself into the machine. It grabs at his guilt over what Elizabeth did, on Earth, and also plays on his fears about what the sisters of Khan predicted that the Doctor would do at the end of the war.

Since these two events are at the foremost of the Doctor's mind, the Epoch technology fuses those two sections of time together, and remaps them accordingly.

Remember what we saw in  _Paradox_? The Doctor, in the middle of the destruction of Gallifrey, wishing that he could change the past and get another chance with Elizabeth?

That scene is actually happening  _now_. Not at the destruction of Gallifrey.

The Epoch's machinery plays through an entire potential timeline, in which the Doctor actually does use the Moment. When the Doctor wishes that he could fix things back on Earth, the Epoch's machinery responds to his wish and remaps Elizabeth's entire life — turning her into Buffy.

Precisely as we saw in  _Paradox_.

The result?

Instead of remapping Gallifrey, Braxiatel's plan remaps the Doctor and Buffy.

When the Doctor snaps out of this, and realizes that the machinery has failed, he tries to find Braxiatel. But can't. He eventually comes to the conclusion that the plan backfired, and Braxiatel is dead, as a result.

The Doctor receives word that the Daleks are about to pass the transduction barrier, on Gallifrey. He races back, just in time to fight at Arcadia.

* * *

Romana, meanwhile, is fighting at the Battle of Arcadia. She soon meets up with the Doctor, and discovers that Braxiatel's plan has failed.

The Doctor terrifies Romana, at this point, because he's so obviously lost it.

The Doctor's been pushed to his limit and is willing to do something drastic.

When Arcadia falls, Romana realizes that the Doctor's completely snapped. She runs off, grabs a TARDIS, sneaks past the Daleks, and heads off to find Braxiatel.

If there's anyone who can convince the Doctor not to use the Moment, it'll be Brax!

Romana searches through the time anomaly that Brax's failed plan has created. Drawing on knowledge from her many times trapped in other time anomalies, she manages to locate him.

"Brax!" Romana shouts, shoving rubble off of him. "Wake up!"

Braxiatel groans, and awakes. He's been trapped in a pocket of time, and under a lot of rubble. He's injured, but can still walk.

"It… didn't work," Braxiatel realizes. His hearts sink. "If I'd only had more time…"

"Enough of that!" Romana shouts, helping him to his feet. "Arcadia's fallen. The Daleks are taking the capital. And I think the Doctor's about to do something terrible!"

The time pocket begins to collapse, around them. And Braxiatel and Romana scramble to get out of it before they're crushed out of time and existence.

"The Doctor?" Braxiatel asks. "Rassilon, surely. The Ultimate Sanction."

"No, the Doctor!" Romana says, as they enter her TARDIS. "He has the Moment." She slams the doors shut, launches them into the vortex. "And I think he's going to use it — on Gallifrey."

"What?!" Brax cries.

* * *

To get back to Gallifrey, they have to run the Dalek blockade — which is now even harder to run now than before, as the Daleks have increased their defenses. Romana almost fails, but Braxiatel — due to his time at the Collection — has experience with running blockades.

(Almost every single time the Collection was involved in a war, Braxiatel's had to run a blockade! He's very good at it.)

They emerge onto the surface of Gallifrey, but Romana doesn't have a clue where the Doctor would go to set off the Moment. Braxiatel, being the Doctor's brother, does — and together, he and Romana start running towards the barn.

Half-way there, Romana receives a message from Rassilon, saying that he's ready to put the Ultimate Sanction into place.

"I have to get to the capital," Romana says. She turns to run the other way. "You find the Doctor. I'll take care of Rassilon."

Now we encounter a scene that Braxiatel saw, before. Because the Moment showed it to him. This is the scene:

Braxiatel realizes that Rassilon will kill Romana if she returns to try to stop him. And he knows that, if he saves Romana, he'll never make it to the Doctor in time.

Braxiatel hesitates.

It's a choice between Gallifrey and Romana.

But he knows, already, which one he's going to save.

Braxiatel knocks Romana unconscious, and drags her back into her TARDIS. He knows that either Rassilon's plan will succeed, or the Doctor's, so he tries to shield Romana's TARDIS against both, hoping to send her off Gallifrey and away to somewhere safe.

He runs out of time.

There's a feeling like Gallifrey is exploding and burning all around them. It even sears into Romana's TARDIS, through all the defenses.

Braxiatel takes what he thinks is his last breath, as he tries to save Romana.

* * *

There are two alternate versions of history that happen, at this point in time.

In one, Romana awakes just in time to see her planet dying, around her. She sees Braxiatel, already dead, his burned and charred corpse slumped over the sparking and melting control console. And outside the doors, she sees the planet burning.

Then Romana dies, too.

That's one version.

In another version, Braxiatel takes another breath. And another. And another.

Then, after a while, he realizes that he isn't dead and Gallifrey hasn't exploded. But something has certainly changed. He can feel the way the planet moves through space and time, feel the relationship of Gallifrey against the timelines. It's all different, now. Nothing has burned — even if he  _thought_  it had, just for a moment.

Romana wakes up. Furious at Braxiatel.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Romana demands. She climbs back to her feet. "I swear, Braxiatel, if you've dragged me in here just so you can run away from this war and save your own skin, I'll—!"

Braxiatel steps outside.

Romana does, too.

"That's… impossible!" Romana says, looking at the stars.

But it isn't. Gallifrey has moved.

The Doctor has saved it.

* * *

Gallifrey, present-day

"Romana and I returned to Gallifrey," Braxiatel summarized, carefully editing the real story. "We tried to stop the Doctor. But in the end… I suppose I just wasn't fast or clever enough to find him, in time. That's what the Moment showed me."

"But it didn't matter," Jenny insisted. "Because Dad saved Gallifrey."

Braxiatel sighed. "And look what we've done with it, since!" He stood up, walking over to a large glass window that showed the Gallifreyan landscape. His eyes drifting over snowcapped mountains and red earth. "Riots and disarray. Rassilon's tyranny. The renegades trying to strike back at a world that rejected them. And the Victor, of course…"

Jenny stepped up, beside him.

She wasn't looking at the landscape.

She was looking at Braxiatel.

"You've never told Romana, have you?" Jenny asked, quietly.

Braxiatel spun around, a little flustered. "Haven't told her what?"

"That you're the one," said Jenny, "who's been betraying her to Rassilon. Ever since the planet got moved. And all the time I've been here."

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Someone on the inside, Romana said," Jenny continued. "Someone she really trusts. Someone who's been quietly telling Rassilon everything he needs to know… so that Romana's always two steps behind Rassilon's plans."

"Jenny…" Braxiatel began.

"Because Rassilon's threatening her," Jenny prompted. "Isn't he? Threatening her… to ensure your cooperation. At a guess — he did it during the War, too. The hidden motive behind your story."

Braxiatel couldn't answer this.

"I always thought it was funny that Rassilon's let Romana have free rein," said Jenny. "Especially since he's been systematically destroying or silencing all his other political rivals. Whatever you're helping him with… it must be something important."

"So he supposes," Braxiatel replied.

Jenny looked at him, strangely. And it was clear — she knew he had a plan up his sleeve.

But Braxiatel knew better than to reveal that plan, before he'd ensured his own success.

"Are you going to tell Romana?" Jenny asked. "What really happened, at the end of the war?"

Braxiatel returned to his desk. Placed something secret in a drawer, closed and locked it.

He doubted Romana would thank him for what he did.

"That I was prepared to sacrifice Gallifrey for a single person?" Braxiatel looked up at Jenny. "Some things, Jenny, are best kept secret."

He tucked the key away, into a pocket.

And returned to his work.


	21. More Stories of Jenny on Gallifrey

 

* * *

There were supposed to be a number of little, short stories, that were all about Jenny on Gallifrey. I wanted to show Jenny at the Academy, and what happened to her afterwards. I also wanted to develop her relationship with Braxiatel, who is a little manipulative but basically a good guy.

Braxiatel is clearly trying to support Jenny, during these stories. And he's also clearly trying to use her to achieve his own goals.

* * *

…

* * *

When Jenny enters the Academy, Brax takes her under his wing. He helps her to excel, and encourages her take-action attitude and her political demonstrations in support of more rights to soldier babies and in support of a more humble attitude from fellow Time Lords.

He also encourages her to talk to her sister. Once again claiming that "family is key".

Brax has a lot of little talks with Jenny.

Particularly about Gallifrey.

"They say Gallifrey falls no more," Brax tells her. He gestures at the world around them. "But I say… it's already fallen."

Gallifrey, following the Time War, has been having a lot of troubles. The Time Lords have become more insular, driving their society backwards into myths and superstitions and stagnation. (People use the Time War to point out why the Time Lords were wrong to change their policies and progress.) The High Council has become little more than an arena where the cleverest Time Lords try to make the other cleverest Time Lords look bad, to further their own petty political agendas. The CIA, now with no one to manipulate but themselves, has become a propaganda tool, with the CIA trying to make people believe their history is different than it actually was.

"Gallifrey has fallen into ruin," Brax says.

At some point, Brax starts talking to Jenny about heroes, and how every society needs heroes to believe in. He mentions a hero from Messaline, long after Jenny's time — a legendary half-Hath, half-human who united the world in a time of great peril, and fought off the alien invaders. He mentions heroes from Earth, as well, and from some other planets I'll make up later.

"Heroes help societies to move forwards," Braxiatel says. "They give people hope. They give people something to strive for."

Jenny nods. "And Gallifrey?"

"Gallifrey has lost its heroes," Brax admits.

Omega turned out to be a madman, crouched up in another universe plotting revenge against the society he'd helped create. And Rassilon turned out to be a tyrant and a despot, who was willing to "vaporize us along with the rest of the universe, in order to attain his goals."

"What about Dad?" Jenny prompts.

And this is a good point, because since the Doctor rescued Gallifrey, many people on the planet have been turning to him as a source of inspiration.

"A good try, but his inspiration can only go so far," Braxiatel explains. "He's a renegade. Someone who rejected Gallifrey and ran away from its customs and traditions. What's more, he originally planned to kill us all."

Jenny makes a face. "That never goes down well, does it?"

"Not particularly, no," Braxiatel agrees. He turns to Jenny, a new light in his eyes. "What Gallifrey really needs… is a hero unlike any other. Someone to drive us from the brink of destruction. Someone who appreciates our culture, but wants change."

Jenny frowns.

"Someone born after the Time War," Braxiatel continues, "away from Gallifrey, but who's a true Gallifreyan inside. Someone who'll always take action, but act with conscience. A fighter, but a believer in peace. Created for war, but clever enough to see past it."

Jenny doesn't know what to say.

"Does that remind you of anyone, Jenny?" Braxiatel asks.

* * *

…

* * *

The Doctor gets wind that Brax is taking an interest in Jenny. Now, since the Doctor knows Braxiatel better than basically anyone else, the Doctor begins to get very concerned about this.

With Seo's help — the Doctor manages to have a long and very intense talk with Braxiatel.

"You talked with my dad?" Jenny asks, when she hears. "What did you two talk about?"

"Oh, this and that," Braxiatel replies. "I believe he threatened to do various unspeakable things to me if I harmed you. When I explained to him that I wished you no harm, he eased off the threats."

Jenny later talks this over with Seo, using their rings.

"Yeah, I heard on this end," Seo confirms. "Father completely chewed Braxiatel out. Kept saying things like, 'this had better not be another one of your schemes, Brax'."

Jenny just laughs at this. "Oh! Brax's schemes. Yes, I know all about those."

"Father says that Braxiatel only does the silly schemes to hide the really dangerous, clever ones he's pulling, behind everyone's backs," Seo continues. "He says, if Braxiatel's taking an interest in you, Jenny, it's for a reason."

The Doctor ultimately gets in touch with Jenny, himself. And tells Jenny that he's confident that Braxiatel has good intentions for her, and that he won't harm Jenny.

But the Doctor also urges Jenny to "learn and do what  _you_  want, not what Braxiatel wants you to."

"And always remember the lessons that Aychron taught you," the Doctor says. "Much more reliable."

* * *

…

* * *

Brax begins tutoring Jenny in math and science, especially the basics that they learn on Gallifrey as little children, because Jenny is having trouble with it.

She asks why everyone seems to know the things she can't figure out.

"Most people learn this in the nursery," says Brax.

"I was never in the nursery," Jenny replies.

Brax isn't surprised that Jenny doesn't know the basics of math and science. When would she have learned? What he's more surprised about is that Jenny is able to learn the complex and more difficult things, despite not knowing the basics it's built on.

"How can you solve a multi-dimensional problem," Braxiatel asks, by way of example, "without Kiloger's theorem? It's impossible."

"No, it's not," says Jenny.

Then she shows him a clever way she's thought up, all on her own, to make the multi-dimensional problem work, without using Kiloger's theorem at all.

Brax stares at it. Impressed. "That's… really rather brilliant."

And decides that Jenny is definitely the right person for his plans.

* * *

…

* * *

One of the things that really upsets Jenny is the way the Time Lord Academy works.

And, in particular, how the selection process works at the Academy, to decide who becomes a "Time Lord".

The students are all pitted against one another, while at the Academy, then ranked. Below the fifty first percentile is considered to be "failing", and those students don't become Time Lords.

This system leads to a "throw your peers under the bus" strategy, where students try to sabotage one another, so that they can be Time Lords instead of everyone else.

That's always been true, even back in the Doctor's day. But since Gallifrey moved, things have changed, somewhat.

And now, the selection process is even worse.

Because there are so few Time Lords left, every new Time Lord who graduates from the Academy winds up being very influential in the elections for the Chamber of Cardinals. Since political corruption is rife on Gallifrey, this has led to a serious corruption of the Time Lord selection process.

Turns out, by Jenny's time at the Academy, your "ranking" no longer has that much to do with your actual academic ability. And has more to do with your political views, and what political support you have from the top.

Jenny passes through the Academy faster than anyone ever has before, and when she checks to see who'll graduate and become a Time Lord, she's thrilled to discover she's made the list. Then her hearts sink, as she realizes… her friends aren't on the list.

Jenny's very upset about this, and confronts Brax about it.

"My friends are all better, academically, than most of the students who are on the list to become Time Lords," Jenny insists. "But my friends are getting flunked out, in favor of better-connected students from more politically influential families. And  _all_  the students who support Rassilon made the list, even if they were idiots!"

Braxiatel sighs.

"Politics has always played a role in this, to a certain extent," Brax tells her. "More so, after the War. These days, no one becomes a Time Lord without powerful friends moving behind the scenes, making it happen."

" _I_  did," Jenny replies.

" _No one_  does," Brax corrects her.

(Yep, you guessed it correctly, Brax has been working behind the scenes this whole time, making sure Jenny would graduate. And he's been making sure it happens fast.)

Brax then continues by saying that, "I felt it was best to get you out of there as soon as possible." Adding that, "There's nothing more you could learn at the Academy that experience hasn't taught you ten times over. You could probably run circles around your tutors, and they know it."

There is, possibly, some mention here of how Brax knows the Doctor wouldn't want Jenny stuck in the Academy too long, as it's a bad influence on her. (Actually, this is what Brax believes. The Doctor has said nothing on the subject.)

Jenny asks if her father had political help passing the Time Lord tests, and Brax replies with a flat-out "no". The Doctor was far too helpful to his peers when he was growing up, and adamantly disagreed with the throwing-people-under-the-bus philosophy. This is the reason the Doctor passed with 51% on his third attempt — he was never one for ruthlessness.

"And you?" Jenny asks.

Brax replies only that, "I did what I had to."

Jenny decides she's had enough of this. "I'm going to do something to change it."

Brax tells Jenny that everyone at the Academy thinks they'll grow up to be a revolutionary, but no one ever acts on it. Their childhood rebellion soon dies down, when they discover it was the institutional corruption that allowed them to get so far in the first place.

Brax subtly urges Jenny to go out and actually do something really drastic, in order to shake everything up.

Jenny realizes that none of the students at the Academy know what's going on, and especially not the soldier babies, who've been taking and retaking the test for ages (they think they're just stupider than most others). She therefore sneaks into the Academy and wipes all academic records and all official rankings for everyone there. So that no one knows how well people have done or not done on anything.

Those running the Academy find out, and have to scramble to try to reconstruct the list. The end result is that academics is thrown completely out the window, and it becomes blatantly obvious to everyone that this is politically corrupt, and that it's all to do with who has the most influential family.

The soldier babies, in particular, rise up about this. Since the soldier babies are pretty badass, and not people you want to get on the wrong side of, people start getting scared. There's some talk in the CIA of wiping out the soldier babies all together. Jenny takes charge of the soldier babies, though, and diverts the violence, instead resorting to nonviolent demands.

There are negotiations undertaken, with Jenny and those who run the Academy. Changes are implemented in the system.

Many soldier babies are made Time Lords, as a result.

Brax, behind the scenes, smiles as he knows his plans are one step closer to fruition.

* * *

…

* * *

By the time Jenny graduates from the Academy, she's extremely popular.

Brax pulls some strings and manipulates behind the scenes, nearly causing a riot from the soldier-babies, which can only be quelled by placing Jenny on the High Council (but not the Inner Council).

This is highly irregular, and unprecedented.

When Jenny tells Brax that the High Council is just people trying to stab each other in the back politically, and she's not able to keep up, Brax informs her that he's useless at the sort of manipulation they practice on the High Council — encouraging Jenny, instead, to speak to her sister.

(He is, of course, manipulating her, himself.)

Jenny doesn't want to bother Seo, but Brax insists, reminding Jenny that, "your sister loves you very much", and to always remember her family.

Jenny and Seo manage to do very well, together, thwarting the plans of the High Council. And Brax is satisfied that his plan is going exactly perfectly.

* * *

…

* * *

Seo, by the way, is suspicious of Brax.

She goes through her own universe and winds up talking to Bernice Summerfield, who gives her the run-down on Brax. Seo warns Jenny, and the two come to the conclusion that they shouldn't trust Braxiatel, but that — for now, at least — Braxiatel seems to be manipulating events to their own advantage.

* * *

…

* * *

Meanwhile, on the High Council, there's a group of Time Lords who have decided that Gallifrey has a "Jenny problem."

This started even before Jenny graduated from the Academy. Even during her studies, she was always vocal about her views. The people have always loved her, because she took action and wasn't afraid to stick up for her beliefs.

As far as Gallifrey is concerned, she's like a female version of the Doctor, except she chooses to embrace Time Lord culture instead of rejecting it.

_— Some Background: Soldier Babies —_

_Gallifrey, during the war, was running out of people to fight, because so many were dying in the war. So they created "soldier babies". These actually aren't exactly like Jenny. They are built to be stronger, tougher, faster, more resilient, and MUCH harder to kill. The cost of this is that they only have 6 regenerations, instead of the full 12._

_On present-day Gallifrey, there are a number of soldier babies who are war veterans. And even more who were created to fight, but didn't have time to actually do so before the war ended._

_It is estimated, at this point, that about 1/3 of the population of Gallifrey is composed of soldier-babies._

_The 'proper' Gallifreyans have issues with these soldier babies, and think of them as inferior. They keep waiting for the soldier babies to all die, but now that the war's over, that's not likely to happen anytime soon._

_Jenny actually does have all 12 regenerations and isn't as resilient as her fellow soldier-babies, but because she's the Doctor's daughter and shares his in-your-face attitude, she speaks out vocally on their behalf. People on Gallifrey are forced to listen to her, and she gets a lot of support from the other soldier-babies._

_And other people._

_— End of Soldier Babies Background —_

Now. Here's "the Jenny problem".

Jenny was appointed to the High Council, almost directly out of the Academy, basically to appease these soldier babies — who had been on the verge of a serious revolt.

The appointment was  _extremely_  unorthodox, and many people disapproved of it. But the High Council basically had no choice.

The High Council had assumed that Jenny wouldn't actually do anything, just sit there and wave at the crowds. Then, the High Council and CIA could covertly arrange her downfall.

Problem is, "Jenny is her father's daughter". AKA she meddles, gets into the middle of things, and takes action wherever she can. The people  _love_  her for this — even the non-soldier babies! The people feel like finally there's someone on the High Council who cares about Gallifrey more than their own petty political ambitions.

So the High Council has made Jenny  _more_  popular, instead of less!

The Inner Council and certain members of the CIA are really angry about this. They keep trying to vote her down or stop her, but she keeps talking to her sister, and together, they keep working out ways to solve problems that bypass the High Council (or else find ways to embarrass the hell out of them until they do what Jenny wants).

The Seo-Jenny duo is very difficult for the High Council to break.

What this secret group decides it has to do is to make Jenny be associated, in the public mind, with a group of fanatics they know, who basically believe that Time Lords are more important than anyone or anything in existence.

_— Some More Background: the Victor —_

_The Ultimate Sanction of the Time Lords, at the end of the war, was an idea created by Rassilon and forcibly ratified through the High Council. However, there were those on Gallifrey who genuinely believed in it._

_The Victor is one of those people._

_He was a great general during the Time War, and basically on-par with the Doctor in terms of victories against the Daleks. The Victor happened to be extremely good at military strategy, and commanded a large following amongst those he commanded._

_But the Victor honestly believed that Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction was right. Not just because of the situation facing them at the end of the war. He thought it was right, all around!_

_If he was given a chance, today, to blow up everything else in the universe so that the Time Lords could ascend, he'd take it._

_No questions asked._

_So basically, when Rassilon needed to weasel out of his whole mass-genocide-to-protect-his-own-skin scheme, and needed a good scapegoat, the Victor was the obvious choice._

_Rassilon blamed the whole thing on the Victor, threw him out of the capital, and made sure everyone knew he was a disgrace. Rassilon's PR and force of personality (AKA killing everyone who disagrees with him) has caused Rassilon to get away with the Ultimate Sanction virtually unscathed… except for having to step down as President. However, since he's still running everything behind the scenes, this isn't a big let-down._

_Meanwhile, the Victor's still on Gallifrey, and he still has a substantial following. He's never forgotten his goals._

_— End of the Victor's Background —_

The CIA has intelligence that the Victor and his followers are planning something. Time Lords on the High Council all want to shut the Victor down, but those who dislike Jenny want to wait a little while, first. Just to see if there's some way they can implicate Jenny in the Victor's schemes, before shutting him down.

Essentially, these Time Lords are risking Gallifrey and the universe, just to bring about Jenny's political downfall. And if they can destroy a few soldier-babies while they're at it… all the better!

(Rassilon never comes out and endorses this plan, but it's pretty clear he dislikes Jenny's popularity and wants to bring her down, too. He's just clever enough not to get his fingers dirty, doing it.)

This shows how much corruption is actually on Gallifrey.

Perhaps Braxiatel's disgust for it all, and his encouragement of Jenny's way of thinking, makes more sense when viewed in this context. Braxiatel honestly wants a better Gallifrey, and thinks Jenny is the best way to get it.


	22. The Death of Dawn Summers-Peters

We first saw hints of this next story in Season 3, when the Tenth Seo told Dawn about her own death — and made it pretty clear that Dawn hadn't died well. Seo clearly blamed herself for it, and did things she wasn't proud of, because of it (and some things she was proud of, like adopting Chiara).

That, of course, was in the timeline in which the Doctor died on Trenzalore.

How will that change, now that the Doctor is alive?

What happened in that other timeline? What happens in this one? Does Dawn die an honorable death, or is she horribly murdered while she's pulled out of her own time?

This story answers all those questions.

I didn't ever get a chance to write this story, but I liked the summary I wrote for it, quite a lot. I'll caution you that it's a little complicated, and involves a lot of different timelines and storylines and alternate realities. But I do like it, quite a lot.

Of all the stories I wish I'd written, this one's the one I wish I'd written, most.

Here it goes.

(Dawn Summers-Peters, by the way, is Dawn's name after she gets married. Her husband is Keith Peters. Over many generations, the name "Summers-Peters" will eventually morph into a mixture of the two names: "Sompters".)

* * *

**The Death of Dawn Summers-Peters**

* * *

Seo materializes Oliver on Earth, and steps outside.

Then jumps about a foot in the air, as she hears a voice just beside her.

"So much suffering and so much loss," says the voice. "Your pain is like a living thing, squirming its way through the dimensional barriers."

Seo spins around, and notices a vengeance demon, beside her.

"We can offer you a way to deal with that pain," says another vengeance demon, behind her.

Seo spins around, again.

"That loss," says a third.

Seo turns to him.

"Your anger," says a fourth.

"Your need for justice," says a fifth.

"Your need for vengeance," says a sixth.

"Your need to stop your own guilt," says a seventh.

A whole group of vengeance demons flock around Seo, until she's spinning around in a circle so fast that she gets dizzy and nearly falls over.

Funny thing is… Seo doesn't feel vengeful. Or angry. Or in pain.

She mostly just feels confused.

"Sorry, why are you lot trying to make me swear vengeance?" Seo asks them. "I'm actually quite happy, at the moment. I beat back a load of alien invaders on a backwater planet in Andromeda, and I'm rather proud of it."

"A forgotten loss will sting even more," says a vengeance demon, "when it's finally remembered."

Seo has no idea what this means. And doesn't really care.

"Look, I'm not particularly sympathetic to you vengeance demons in the first place," Seo says, pushing past them. "So if you don't push off, right away — I'll get rid of you lot, same way I got rid of D'Hoffryn."

Then she heads away, to find her friends, Ace and Donna.

* * *

When Seo arrives at A Charitable Earth, Ace looks both relieved and grateful.

"It's Donna," Ace explains, leading Seo into the back. "She's gone mad. And not in a brain-melting-down sort of way, either!"

When Seo arrives in the back, she finds Donna, there.

Everyone else has grown older over the many years since they first set up A Charitable Earth, but Donna's aged much slower than the others. She's still red-headed, loud-mouthed Donna — and at the moment, she's terrifying everyone in sight.

"Oi! You lot can't just forget a whole family, here!" Donna shouts. She grabs up one of the secretaries at A Charitable Earth. "I'm talking to you, sunshine! So you better tell me… where's Dawn Summers-Peters? Where's her husband, Keith? And where are her three children?!"

Seo frowns.

Dawn… Summers-Peters?

Seo knows that her real name is Dawn Summers, of course. Although how Donna knows that is a mystery — probably a leaked Doctor-memory, Seo can only assume. But who's Dawn Summers-Peters? And what husband and kids are Donna talking about?

"You remembered them all, yesterday!" Donna insists. "Then, three hours ago, something changed. She was gone, and you lot started saying she'd died years ago. And now… you don't remember any of them ever existed!"

"Told you," Ace mutters to Seo. "She's lost it. Keeps thinking there's someone we're forgetting, who used to work here."

Donna hears.

Turns on Ace.

"What? You think I'm making this up?" Donna charges towards Ace, shoving a finger in her face. "Listen, mate! I may have memory problems, but I don't remember things that aren't there. A whole family can't just disappear like they'd never existed in the first place! It's rubbish!"

Seo suddenly gets a deep chill.

Memory.

And someone named… Dawn…

"You remember this person?" Seo asks Donna. "Even though the rest of us don't?"

"Of course I bloomin' do!" Donna insists. "She was working here until yesterday!"

Seo thinks about all the vengeance demons outside, who insisted that Seo had forgotten some kind of horrible loss. She thinks about the story of her own life, about the Key popping into existence. And if Seo is an alternate-timeline of the battle between the Monks of the Order of Dagon and Glory…

Then what if there was another Dawn, in this timeline?

Someone the Monks conjured up, by altering everyone's memories?

And what if… someone out there… found a way to undo that magic, after they killed this other-Dawn? So that no one could remember she'd ever existed?

"I have to go," Seo says.

She runs out of the building. Back to the vengeance demons.

* * *

"You know something about this," Seo tells them all, running up to them, out of breath. She pauses, panting, struggling to get the words out as quickly as she can in between pants. "You know what I forgot."

"Dawn Summers-Peters," a vengeance demon says.

"One of the most important people in your life," another agrees. "Your family."

"And someone I'd swear vengeance over, if I remembered her," Seo cuts in, sharply. "But I don't remember her! I can't remember anything about her! So how can I get upset enough to swear vengeance… when I don't have any memories?"

The vengeance demons bring out a large crystal.

This is similar to the one that Anya offers Cordelia, in the Buffy show, but bigger. And much more powerful. It looks like it's the consolidation of every single vengeance crystal from every single vengeance demon there. Fused into this single gem.

It's the most powerful vengeance crystal ever created.

"Take it," the vengeance demons say.

Seo steps away, hands raised. "And make a wish? I don't think so. I don't even know this Dawn Summers-Peters. I'm not going to swear vengeance over her."

"You don't have to make a wish," say the vengeance demons. "Just take the gemstone. And you will remember everything."

Seo hesitates.

Then takes the crystal.

As Seo takes it, she cries out. All her memories of Dawn come flooding back, but not the memory of Dawn's death. All Seo knows is that Dawn should be here… but something's changed. Dawn isn't here anymore.

The only reason Donna could remember, was because her memory had already been so strongly tampered with… that it developed a resistance to this kind of memory wipe. Whoever had been covering their tracks hadn't counted on Donna's memory.

And Donna had confirmed… that time had been altered. So that Dawn had died, years ago.

The loss hits Seo, hard.

"Someone's tampered with history," Seo says. "They killed my aunt! In the past! They…!"

She struggles not to cry.

"Time has changed," the vengeance demons agree. "History rewritten. Dawn Summers-Peters… and her entire family… are gone, now. No one can get it back — except, of course, vengeance demons who can tamper with timelines."

Seo grips the crystal more tightly.

"It only takes a wish," the vengeance demons remind her. "And we can set this right."

Seo puts the crystal in her pocket. Then turns away from them. "No," she decides. Heads back to Oliver. "There's another way to fix this. A better way."

She opens the doors to her ship, and steps inside.

Only just having time to shout back at the vengeance demons, "And I'm going to find it!"

Then she dematerializes.

* * *

When she leaves, the vengeance demons all turn to each other. Asking the question that's on all their minds.

"Is it worth the risk?" the vengeance demons ask each other. "Will she do it?"

It's a huge risk.

The vengeance demons have combined all their powers into that one single crystal, so that it has the enormous power needed to undo Dawn's death, and reintroduce her memory back into the world. But if Seo decides not to make a wish, and to smash the crystal, instead — those vengeance demons would all turn human. And that'd wipe out most of the vengeance demons on Earth.

With no D'Hoffryn, there'll never be any more to take the place of those vengeance demons who have fallen.

"She won't smash the crystal," one of the vengeance demons assures the others. "You'll see. When she discovers the truth… she'll know that we're her only chance to get Dawn back."


	23. Chapter 23

Seo tries to go back in time, to when Dawn disappeared from history and 'died'.

But fails.

There's something very powerful happening at the moment when Dawn disappeared from history. Seo has been barred from entering the timestream.

Seo takes out the vengeance demons' crystal. Turns it over in her hands.

"What now?" Seo asks herself. "Use it?"

She grips it, tightly.

Then… determinedly… puts it back in her pocket. Shaking her head.

"No," Seo says. "No wishes."

Better idea — if time's been screwed up, then Seo knows another species who specialize in fixing temporal mess-ups. And Seo, herself, has an in with them… through Jenny!

Seo sets Oliver into motion.

Time to slip through universes, and visit her sister!

"Time to get some help fixing this," Seo says, "from the Time Lords."

* * *

Seo arrives on Gallifrey, and immediately runs into Romana. Seo mentions Dawn, and Romana doesn't know who 'Dawn' is or what Seo is talking about — but Romana  _does_  seems very shaken and disturbed by Seo's story.

"I'm starting to think..." Romana begins. Then stops herself. "Oh, dear." Grabs Seo's hand and starts running. "Come on!"

They're immediately arrested by a group of black-ops Time Lord troops, whom Romana has never seen. They're bundled off, and the Time Lords attempt to seal them in a stasis chamber in the anomaly vault.

Jenny, who's been warned by Braxiatel, comes to save them.

With Braxiatel's help, Jenny manages to save Seo and Romana, and get them out of the anomaly vault. But it isn't easy, and involves a gun battle or two. Brax steps into the middle of it, to help Jenny get Romana out of there.

While crouching under cover, shooting, Romana and Braxiatel start yelling at one another.

"I know you've been helping Rassilon with some secret plan of his," Romana accuses. "This was the plan all along, wasn't it? This… 'aunt' of Seo's, who disappeared… that's all your fault!"

"I think everyone agrees that things didn't turn out quite as we imagined," Brax replies. "Although, if it helps, I did attempt to save her."

"Braxiatel!" Romana shouts.

When Jenny and Seo finally get clear, they find themselves separated from Romana and Braxiatel. It's clear that Braxiatel's finally gone against Rassilon, and the price he's paying is Romana's continued safety.

However, at this point… it's obvious to Seo who really killed Dawn.

Who would have the ability to create a mind-wipe that powerful, to make sure no one remembered that Dawn should exist.

And who would be able to shut Seo out of the time-stream, if she chose to return.

Seo tells Jenny — "It's the Time Lords. They scooped my aunt out of time and killed her."

Jenny can't deny it, after hearing Romana and Braxiatel.

But even though Jenny can't remember Dawn, either, Jenny connects the dots in the story, and starts to figure out what must have happened in the time she can't remember. The time that the Time Lords attempted to erase.

Jenny tells Seo about the Victor, and his cult of Time Lords who believe that they  _should_  have blown up the universe and ascended. That was their right.

How else could they hope to destroy the Daleks, forever?

How else could they ensure that this never happened again?

"Thing is, lately," Jenny explains to Seo, "the Victor has gotten even more insane than usual. He learned about something Romana had done in the Axis before the War ever even started, and it spooked him. He started talking about the destruction — not just of this universe, but of  _every_  universe. To erase the Daleks from the multiverse!"

"What?!" Seo screams.

Jenny tries to explain it better.

"Romana had been to the Axis, just before the Time War," Jenny says. "She found Daleks, there. Invading the Axis to eliminate and destroy any alternate timeline that featured Gallifrey. By the end of the war… the Axis was abandoned, empty, and forgotten. But the Victor hadn't forgotten. He told his followers… the Daleks had gotten into the Axis, once, and they'd do it, again. The only way to defeat the Daleks… was to crush every alternate timeline into one single timeline. Then blow it up."

So that was what the Victor wanted to do. Tear down the gateways and crunch them into a single mess of a universe, using that power to ascend themselves into the gods of gods.

Seo shudders.

As she realizes why the Time Lords must have taken Dawn.

"I thought the Victor couldn't do anything about it, though," Jenny insisted. "Even if I did once know about another Key — I'd never have told him."

"They know I'm the Key," Seo argues. "They know I'm from the Axis. They could have worked out that there was another one, somewhere."

"Only a handful of people on the High Council knew the full truth about you," Jenny says. "Trust me, no one in the Victor's cult would ever have had enough information to work out..."

Then Jenny realizes.

Why it must have happened.

"Someone told the Victor," said Jenny. "Someone on the High Council."

Seo seethes. "Why?!"

"Why else?" Jenny replies. "To make me look bad."

Jenny can now see perfectly how it would have happened. One of Jenny's political enemies must have told the Victor all about Dawn, and also how to reach through time and grab Dawn out of history. Using a crude version of a time scoop, that had been altered to work across universes.

"If Dawn was with her husband, when she got scooped," said Jenny, "he'd have been killed instantly. The energies used to scoop Dawn and get her to Gallifrey would have been enormous. He never stood a chance."

Jenny is guessing that her political enemies planned to make the Victor  _nearly_  collapse every universe. But, at the last moment, the Time Lord High Council would intervene and stop him.

Jenny recalls that there was a raid on the Victor's cult HQ, a short time ago. Perhaps that was a lingering memory that survived past the mind wipe.

"Of course, it would have been easy to blame me for giving the Victor secrets," Jenny went on, "since I was the one of the only people who knew about trans-universal Keys and your aunt Dawn. They'd have thrown me under the bus, so they'd look like heroes while I'd resign from the Council in disgrace. No more Jenny. All the power in their hands. In short… Gallifreyan politics at their most typical." She shrugs. "A simple power play."

Seo is now ready to explode.

"They killed my aunt," Seo shouts, "and covered it up... because of a  _power play_?!"

Jenny is still thinking this all through, though. If it was so thoroughly covered up... something must have gone wrong with her enemies' plans. Something they hadn't counted on. Since Romana was suddenly in the firing line, Jenny can only assume that Brax somehow got in the way. She wonders...

Then, Jenny notices that Seo is reaching into a pocket.

Seo brings out a large crystal, glittering beneath the Gallifreyan suns. She turns it over in her hands, and it glistens with power.

"Seo, what's that?" Jenny asks.

Seo thumbs it, trying to make up her mind. "Dawn shouldn't have died," Seo says. "She died for a stupid reason, on a planet that wasn't her own. It should never have happened — and because of your stupid Gallifreyan politics, no one will ever set it straight!" The stone begins to glow. "But I can."

Jenny suddenly panics. Doesn't know what that crystal does, but knows that Seo is too upset to think this through properly.

"Seo, stop!" Jenny tries. "You don't know what…!"

Seo ignores her.

Grips the crystal, tightly.

"I wish," Seo says, "that Dawn Summers was still alive."

* * *

Crash! Boom! Alacazam!

* * *

The next thing Seo knows, she's back on Earth. It looks a little different, but perhaps Seo is just in a bad part of town. It's run down, dingy and dark, and most of the people around her are running through the streets, afraid to be out for too long.

Dawn is standing beside her.

Alive.

Looking about 30-something. Which is about right for when she got scooped out of history.

"What am I doing here?" Dawn wants to know, looking around herself and feeling extremely confused. "How did I get...?"

Seo is so relieved, she swoops Dawn into a great big hug. Happy that she's managed to fix everything.

"I saved you," Seo says.

Dawn gets edgy. " _You_  took me out of there at the last minute?"

Seo nods.

Dawn throws her away. "Seo, you've got to get me back to Gallifrey!" she insists. "You don't know what was going on, there! You've got no idea...!"

Then she notices the vengeance demons' crystal in Seo's hand.

And is horrified.

"Oh, Seo," says Dawn. "What have you done?"

That's when D'Hoffryn enters the scene. Followed by a circle of vengeance demons, surrounding Seo and Dawn on all sides.

"What she's done, Dawn Summers-Peters," says D'Hoffryn, "is hand this universe — and several others — over to us. The vengeance demons."

Seo and Dawn look around. And realize, in horror, that this isn't a bad part of town. This is the whole world. The whole universe. This is why the vengeance demons needed to construct such a gigantic crystal in order to grant Seo her wish.

By wishing Dawn alive... Seo has just doomed the universe.


	24. Chapter 24

Yes, Seo has made a wish that Dawn was still alive... and it's resulted in doom for everyone. In the whole universe.

What's more, D'Hoffryn's back, and he wants to make sure that Seo knows exactly what her wish did and how much damage it caused. He does this via a huge and exhaustive gloat.

From D'Hoffryn's gloating and taunting, we soon learn that Seo's wish somehow resulted in D'Hoffryn's power returning, and the vengeance demons conquering the universe. The vengeance demons have also converted Earth into their home base, and it seems that the few remaining non-demon humans on Earth act as slaves to the Vengeance Demons.

"One wish," D'Hoffryn tells Seo, "and your planet is destroyed, your universe rewritten, all timelines have changed, and your own life is entirely at our mercy."

Seo doesn't understand how this happened.

Dawn does.

Dawn lunges for the vengeance crystal, and smashes it underfoot. But nothing happens.

"We're too powerful, now," D'Hoffryn tells Dawn, "to be affected by something as simple as that."

"Too powerful?" Seo shakes her head. "But how did my one wish allow you to do all this? It doesn't make sense!"

"Yes, it does," Dawn breathes. She steps back, shuddering. "It really, really does."

Dawn doesn't want to explain, further.

But D'Hoffryn insists. "Tell Seo the truth," D'Hoffryn demands. "Tell her what happened on Gallifrey, when you were stolen away from Earth and sent to the Victor's lair. Tell her how she changed history, by allowing you to survive."

So... Dawn tells.

This is what happened.

"I was walking with my husband, Keith," says Dawn, "when this big light thing swallowed me up. Keith died — it was horrible. And I got sucked onto this... big, red-orange planet, with lots of human-looking people speaking alien, which I couldn't understand."

Dawn tells Seo that she'd found herself in a cavern outside the capital, and had been tied up and shoved inside a very nasty-looking machine, while some guy in robes with a huge collar and enormous hat started shouting about things in alien.

When the alien guy activated the machine that Dawn had been shoved inside, then Dawn knew — this machine was gonna kill her.

"But I guess they thought all humans were pushovers," said Dawn. "Or they'd have tied me up better."

Turns out, Dawn had escaped from the machine.

And run.

"When I got outside the alien's cavern-lair thing, it became pretty obvious where I was," Dawn continued. "Orange sky. Silver leaves. Red grass. Two suns. And this big dome thingy in the distance, with a city inside it. Add the huge hats into the mix, and there was only one place it  _could_  be."

Dawn managed to sneak into the capital, using a combination of ingenuity, luck, and memories of stories Ace had told her about sneaking around Gallifrey during her Academy days.

Eventually, Dawn tracked down Jenny.

"But by the time I found her," Dawn said, "it was pretty obvious something was really wrong. The whole planet was shaking, and I could feel this crawling, horrible sensation deep down inside of me, like everything was about to fall apart."

As soon as Jenny had seen Dawn, she'd been horrified. And she'd figured out exactly what was going on. While Jenny fixed it so the translation worked for Dawn, she explained — the Chancellory Guard had raided the Victor's hideout, earlier. But whatever they'd set out to prevent, they'd failed. The machinery the Victor was using was massively unstable.

All of Gallifrey was at risk.

"Presumably, they were going to use you to make sure they actually ascended, at the right moment," Jenny had said, dragging Dawn off with her. "But without you around, it's unstable. Our universe, and all the others, are at risk. And when the destruction really begins... the Time Lords will be the first to go."

Jenny had had a plan, of course. To stop the devastation.

They had needed to return to the Victor's hideout, to modify some of the equipment. They'd been accompanied by Weryn, an associate of Jenny's, who was on the High Council. He'd helped them to get out of the capital and had led them both to the right spot.

They had met resistance from the Victor and his followers along the way, of course. The Victor had tried to grab Dawn back and use her for himself, but Jenny and Dawn had managed to outsmart and outmaneuver them.

The Victor had died, in a futile attempt to get Dawn back.

Jenny had gone back to his lair and found his machinery. She'd modified his machinery the way she'd planned — but when she did, Jenny had realized that by this point, it was too late to simply plug Dawn back in. They needed her Key powers in a more concentrated form — otherwise, there was no guarantee that her activation would save the Time Lords and the multiverse.

That meant… they'd needed Dawn to be converted into a stone segment of the Key to Time.

"As it turns out, the Victor had everything he needed, nearby, to convert me into a segment," Dawn explains to Seo. "But... there was some fear that, if I was turned into a segment, I couldn't be turned back. I'd be a piece of stone forever, and the real me... would die."

Dawn, of course, had been hesitant to allow them to convert her, after hearing this. She realized that this must be it — what she'd heard about in  _the Ten Seos_. This was the moment, Dawn knew, that she was going to die, and Seo and Jenny would blame themselves for it, forever.

But she couldn't die! Not now!

Without Keith, her kids had nobody. Dawn knew she couldn't let them grow up alone! She needed to be there for them! She needed to take care of them!

Jenny had tried to reassure Dawn that it'd be okay — Dawn wouldn't die, if she was converted into a stone segment. "Romana said there was a way to turn stone segments back into people," Jenny said. "She said that Dad had done it, before!"

That was when it struck Dawn.

This was the answer.

"I remember... in the future I saw, before, the Doctor had died at Trenzalore!" Dawn explains to Seo. "But that future had been changed. The Doctor got more regenerations. He's still alive! So I thought... this is it! My way out. If the Doctor can turn me back, then this time... I'll survive it!"

She'd therefore decided to submit to the conversion, willingly.

But before she'd had the chance to actually do so...

Dawn had found herself back here. On Earth. With Seo and Vengeance Demons.

Seo had made her wish, and Dawn had been whisked away from Gallifrey at exactly the wrong time, as a result. Dawn had been saved.

But Gallifrey had not.

That's the end of Dawn's story.

"You were dead," Seo says to Dawn — as if to justify herself. "I just wanted... to bring you back."

"Maybe I wasn't really dead!" Dawn replies. "Just a stone segment! But the Vengeance Demons made you  _think_  I was dead, so you'd make your wish."

"You  _were_  dead!" Seo insists.

Dawn shakes her head. "They used you, Seo. To destroy the Time Lords."

The Vengeance Demons, around them, sneer.

"That's how they got all this power," Dawn finishes. "That's why breaking that vengeance crystal did nothing. It's why they can rule the universe!" She steps forwards. "They took me out of harm's way, just in time to kill the Time Lords. And the vengeance demons used that to steal Gallifrey's secrets for themselves."

D'Hoffryn agrees. "Dawn gave her life to stop this happening," he says. "Your wish undid that sacrifice. And we took full advantage."

* * *

Now Seo's starting to realize what her wish really meant.

And feels horrible.

Dawn starts berating Seo. "These are vengeance demons!" Dawn shouts. "They're evil, Seo! What did you expect, when you made a wish? Did you really think you could outsmart them?!"

Seo turns to D'Hoffryn. She demands to know what happened after they rescued Dawn. What happened on Gallifrey, when Dawn got whisked back to Earth, due to Seo's wish?

"Jenny managed to synchronize the Victor's machinery to the Eye of Harmony," D'Hoffryn says. "It stopped the collapse of the universe — and all others. But without Dawn as a segment, the power demands were too great. The Eye of Harmony went into overload, and all the Time Lords in that universe were killed, in an instant."

"But the planet, itself, wasn't destroyed," another Vengeance Demon puts in. "And neither was its technology."

"And my wish gave you vengeance demons access to all of it," Seo realizes.

Yes, she guessed right. As it happens, because of her wish, the Vengeance Demons were able to arrive on Gallifrey, even though it was in another universe, and learn all the Time Lords' secrets for themselves. They gained full mastery over time and space, then returned home and used their new powers to rewrite history.

To their own benefit.

D'Hoffryn was restored to what he once was, and taught the full secrets of Gallifrey. Earth was turned into the vengeance demons' home base. Millions of humans across history were turned into Vengeance Demons, then sent out among the stars, to control the destiny of the universe.

And other universes.

The power of the Time Lords combined with the power of the vengeance demons... was a terrifying thing, indeed.

"Of course, while we were still conquering this universe, we found something else," says D'Hoffryn. "Something Gallifreyan — that  _hadn't_  been on Gallifrey, when it had fallen. Something… terribly useful. That we managed to control."

D'Hoffryn gestures into the distance, and the crowd of vengeance demons part, around them.

A figure steps through the crowd.

It's that Time Lord superweapon, which Seo had rescued. The Moment.

"She's been very useful to us," D'Hoffryn explains, "once we bent her to our will."

Seo grows very wary, at this.

Doesn't know what's going on, but knows that the Moment in the hands of the Vengeance Demons could be disastrous.

"Why's she here?" Seo demands.

"To show you the truth, of course," D'Hoffryn replies. "See, some of the Time Lords had a plan to stop the Victor, which would have left Dawn alive. But for that plan to work…  _you_ had to show up on Gallifrey. They called you, when the planet was shaking and Dawn was preparing to die. But you didn't come."

"Me?" says Seo.

"Yes — you," D'Hoffryn says. "The truth is... this is all  _your_  fault. You were the one to create a situation where you had to choose between the death of your aunt, and the destruction of everything you hold dear. You did this."

He turns to the Moment.

"Tell her," D'Hoffryn commands. "Show her."

The Moment, however, doesn't show anything. She tells Seo that, "He is lying about why. But it  _is_  your fault."

D'Hoffryn, suddenly nervous, bundles the Moment away.

Seo tries to ask questions, but gets no answers.

"You tried to make me powerless," D'Hoffryn tells Seo, instead. "You tried to trick me and use me for your own ends! But now, I have the ability to avenge myself on you."

"By exploiting my loyalty to my family," Seo says, "so you could destroy my home planet and my universe?" She stares him straight in the eye. "You might think you've won, D'Hoffryn. But I can stop this. I can set everything right!"

"You? A mere human?" says D'Hoffryn.

"I'm no mere human," Seo replies.

D'Hoffryn gives an evil smile. Raises his hands, and says the words of vengeance that give him power…

"I wish," D'Hoffryn commands, "that Seosyrae was fully human."


	25. Chapter 25

Seo turns human.

She can still remember everything. Can still think of everything she once thought of — although she gets headaches from thinking of complex temporal stuff. But Seo has lost all connection to her ship, and she can no longer control her Key energies.

That means she has no hope of getting to Gallifrey, in its own past, so she can fix this.

D'Hoffryn gloats a little more.

And then the Vengeance Demons leave. To let Seo suffer in the ruined world she helped them create.

* * *

Seo decides that it doesn't matter if she's human or not. She has to find a way to stop this.

"There is a way," says Seo. "There has to be. Or the Moment wouldn't be here."

Dawn doesn't get it.

"D'Hoffryn said that he was able to control the Moment because he'd gained the Time Lords' secrets," Seo explains. "But that's a lie, because the Time Lords couldn't control the Moment, either. They were so scared of her, they locked her in a vault and forgot about her."

"So how...?" Dawn starts.

"If the Moment is here," Seo says, "it's because she  _wants_  to be. And if I know her at all... she's here because all this is somehow reversible. She's not really with the Vengeance Demons — she's trying to give us clues about how to reverse this!"

But before Seo can set out to stop this, Dawn first insists on checking on her children. Especially in a world as full of demons and chaos as this, Dawn has to make sure they're safe!

They head to Dawn's home, but it's empty.

The neighbors all remember Dawn's children, but only say that the children disappeared around the same time that Dawn did.

Seo remembers that Dawn's children had disappeared in the undestroyed version of Earth, too.

"Maybe," says Seo, "when the Victor took you and killed Keith… he killed your children, too."

Dawn spins on Seo, and shakes her. "Don't you dare say that!" Dawn shouts. "Don't you ever say that! They have to be safe! They have to be!"

But Seo insists that the only way to find Dawn's children will be to undo both the Time Lords' meddling, and the Vengeance Demons' reign.

"And that means, the first thing we need to do," says Seo, "is find Mom."

* * *

This proves to be extremely difficult.

They try to use the resources at A Charitable Earth, but it's been destroyed. Donna, Shaun, and Ace are all dead. It looks like they died trying to take down the Vengeance Demons, and when A Charitable Earth fell, Ace had blown up any alien tech they had left, to stop it getting into the wrong hands.

Seo and Dawn then try to find people they know at UNIT. But no luck there, either. All of their UNIT friends are either on the side of the Vengeance Demons, or they're dead.

Seo and Dawn then track down Gwen Cooper, and try to find Jack. But Gwen's never met anyone named Jack, and doesn't know anything about an institution called "Torchwood."

With a little digging, Dawn and Seo discover that Torchwood never existed.

Jack may never have existed, either. If he did, he certainly didn't travel through time, like the Jack they knew. So he'd be no help.

However, their digging does reveal one thing.

Willow still exists.

She's a high-ranking Vengeance Demon.

"If anyone knows where to find Buffy," says Dawn, "it'll be Willow. She'll know."

* * *

This whole time, Dawn has been trying to find her children. With no luck.

* * *

Seo and Dawn chase down Willow, only to discover that Willow is  _not_  happy to see them. And she's particularly upset to meet Seo.

"Yes, I know who you both are," Willow says, coldly. "The sister and daughter of that Buffy Summers. And if D'Hoffryn hadn't claimed the right to vengeance on you, himself, I'd have taken it for him."

Both Dawn and Seo are a little floored by this.

That's when they discover something astonishing.

"Buffy Summers made my life hell, the moment she moved to Sunnydale," says Willow. "A vapid, shallow person, who hung out with all the popular girls and took delight in making sure I was humiliated, every single day."

"That's not right," Dawn insists. "Buffy was your best friend."

Willow laughs, bitterly. "As if I'd befriend someone like her!"

Willow then says that she began exploring witchcraft because she'd heard a rumor that Buffy was something called a "Slayer". Buffy had decided she didn't care about being a Slayer, though, and had been shirking her Slayer duties ever since Hemory High School.

But Willow knew, the only way to take down a Slayer would be with witchcraft.

Willow started using magic to get her revenge on her most vicious high school bully, when D'Hoffryn appeared. D'Hoffryn warned Willow that interfering with Buffy's timeline would be a bad idea, "for she is a Line Hopper, Willow, and her fate is sealed. But of course… I can make you a better offer."

D'Hoffryn had offered her transformation into a vengeance demon. And give her a high-ranking position.

Willow had agreed.

"D'Hoffryn never explained what he meant by 'Line Hopper'," said Willow. "But I saw for myself what happened when Anyanka tried to change around Buffy's timeline. Apparently, whatever Buffy is, we Vengeance Demons can't touch her." Her voice dropped, low and edgy. "But we can touch the people around her."

She's glaring daggers at Seo, now.

And it's obvious that she heard about Seo from D'Hoffryn. And really wanted to tear Seo down and torture her, in retaliation for what Buffy had done in high school.

"You hate her that much?" Seo asks.

"She didn't care about people," said Willow. "Didn't care about the world! I saw her feed people she didn't like to demons, just to get herself out of a scrape. Whoever decided to make her the Slayer, they obviously had no taste."

Seo and Dawn are still trying to figure this whole thing out.

Because this is not right!

At all!

The Buffy they knew hadn't been cruel or vapid and shallow. Even though Willow insists that no one can alter Buffy, both Dawn and Seo know that someone already has.

"Actually," Willow adds, "I was surprised to hear that she jumped into that portal to save you, Dawn. I guess she did care about  _something_ , in the end."

Seo suddenly realizes something. If Buffy had jumped into that portal... but had been a completely different person, who wouldn't make one crucial wish at one crucial moment...

"The paradox," says Seo. "That's why they changed Mom. Because he wasn't in the right universe, when Gallifrey was destroyed; so  _he_  must have survived. And they didn't want that."

It takes Dawn a while to get it, but she does.

"They changed Buffy to be a certain way," Dawn clarifies, "to make sure that the Doctor never existed?!" She shakes her head. "How does that even work? I thought the Doctor was the reason Gallifrey survived that Time War in the first place."

Now Willow seems highly amused. "The Doctor?" she asks. "What do you want with him?"

This makes both Dawn and Seo do a double-take.

Neither of them had expected that, in a universe ruled by Vengeance Demons, that the Doctor would still be alive. Or that he'd even exist in the first place.

"He's still around?" Seo asks.

"Of course," says Willow, with a laugh. "He's been on Earth for the last 1,000 years." Then, still highly amused, "Why? Do you want to see him?"

They obviously both do.

Willow considers. "D'Hoffryn wouldn't like it," she admits. "But… for a chance to watch you suffer, Seo, when you see…"

Willow makes up her mind.

Yes, she'll let them see the Doctor.

She's sure that, if they care so much about him, and have so much hope that he can solve their problems, showing him to them will only serve to sate Willow's appetite for vengeance.


	26. Chapter 26

The Doctor is kept in a vault below the city of London.

But it's the wrong incarnation of the Doctor.

This is the Fifth Doctor. And he keeps nattering away to himself, content and yet bustling around, inside his little tiny prison. When Willow lets Seo and Dawn inside, the Doctor notices Willow.

He bows to Willow, immediately meek and cowering before her.

"The Doctor," Willow announces, to Seo and Dawn. "Our very own pet Time Lord." She locks Seo and Dawn inside, with the Doctor. And leaves. "Enjoy."

* * *

The Doctor is completely different, personality-wise.

He's clearly still vastly intelligent, and the vengeance demons are obviously using that intelligence for their own ends by making him do complex computations for them — but he's very much a 'go-with-the-flow' kind of guy.

The Doctor sees no point in opposing the Vengeance Demons.

They've won, they're in control, and what's the point in opposing people in a position of authority?

"I tried it once, in my youth," the Doctor explains to Seo and Dawn. "Decided to defy the Time Lords, and stick my nose into things. I wound up having to steal a TARDIS and run away from Gallifrey with my granddaughter."

Seo and Dawn are both aware of this.

"But I was caught," the Doctor explains. "Placed on trial. They found me guilty of breaking the 'Don't interfere' law, and sent me for... rehabilitation."

And now it becomes clear what's changed in him.

And why he's only in his fifth incarnation.

"You never left Gallifrey, after that," Seo realizes. "The Time Lords convinced you to become... like this."

"Naturally," the Doctor says. Then, as he sees their faces, adds, "But ultimately, it was for the best! I mean, just think about it! I was out of control. Always questioning authority, trying to defy the status quo. If I'd kept up behavior like that, continued wandering across time and space as a renegade… think how many regenerations I might have gone through, by now!"

Twelve, Seo and Dawn both figure.

"No, best leave the fiddling and the futzing to the CIA," the Doctor concludes. "I've learned that the best thing to do is not to speak out or fight back against authority, but to simply do as I'm told."

Dawn is completely horrified at what the vengeance demons have done to the Doctor.

"They must have wanted someone who knew about Gallifreyan technology," Seo guesses, "and could lead them through how it worked and operated. They changed Mom... to alter the crucial paradox. And change  _the Doctor_."

They soon learn that, in this version of history, the war had ended because Braxiatel's plan had worked (except that Gallifrey had not been rewritten; the plan had only wiped out the Daleks). The residual energy that lingered had transferred to Buffy, who had become a shallow person who went along with peer pressure and didn't care about the fate of people.

The paradox had been altered.

Along with time itself.

The Doctor had been remapped into a new person, who went along with authority and didn't question. He had no memory of ever being anyone else.

(Brax's plan worked because, in this reality, the Doctor never met Benny Summerfield. The Dynadum never turned into a race of super-advanced beings. And Brax's plan with the energy field was a success.)

(The Doctor probably explains this to Dawn and Seo, in the present, by telling them about Brax's plan, in the past, and remarking that Brax was very surprised that the energy field was still around. Brax had told the Doctor that he believed that "time has changed", and that it had something to do with the Doctor and Bernice Summerfield. The Doctor had protested that he's never met a Bernice Summerfield, and Brax had said, "That's what I meant.")

Anyways.

Taking control of the paradox that caused Buffy and the Doctor to be the way they were is too big a job for just vengeance demons. Seo surmises that the only way the Vengeance Demons were able to gain control of it and change it was by using the Moment.

They'd  _said_  that the Moment had been useful.

Useful, indeed.

"So that's it," says Dawn. "The Doctor's the only person who could help me get back my children, and the demons have already rewritten history to turn him into their slave!"

The Doctor says that he resents the implication that he's a slave. He's simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

"I'm terribly sorry about your children, of course," says the Doctor, going back to his work for the vengeance demons. He starts tinkering. "If there's anything I can do to help find them..."

Seo cuts in, suddenly. "How'd you cross universes?"

* * *

The Doctor looks up, confused. "What?"

"You must have been off Gallifrey when the catastrophe happened," Seo reasons. "In fact, you can't have even been in the same universe as Gallifrey. Otherwise, you'd have been killed with all the others."

"Yes, that's right!" Dawn realizes. "The disaster killed all Time Lords in the same universe as Gallifrey! So if the Doctor from this timeline didn't move Gallifrey to another universe, then why is he still alive, when everyone else is dead? That doesn't make sense."

The Doctor ponders this, because they're right, it doesn't. "I suppose..." Then he stops. Scratches his head. Not sure how to answer this.

"I think the Moment's been holding a number of impossibilities at bay," says Seo, "to make sure the Doctor is still around and alive in this universe, at this time. And that's strange. After all, the vengeance demons have certainly gone through a lot of effort to get Father this way — but why?"

"Because he's a Time Lord," Dawn says. "And knows the technology."

"But there are other Time Lords they could have used and rescued who'd have caved, instantly, without needing to rewrite any timelines at all!" Seo argues. "They can obviously use the Moment to pluck any individual Time Lord out of the way of the dimensional disaster. So why did they choose Father, specifically?"

Then, realizing something else, turns on the Doctor.

"And where's your TARDIS?" Seo asks.

Now the Doctor gets indignant. "You're not who you say you are!" he accuses. "You're one of those vengeance demons! All this talk of changed timelines and lost children... just to make me confess something I don't know!" He gets very angry. "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again. I don't know where the TARDIS is! I've never known!"

Dawn exchanges a look with Seo.

"The Vengeance Demons have been trying to make him tell them where the TARDIS is?" Dawn asks.

Seo nods. She'd guessed as much. "That's why they didn't kill him," she said. "That's why they changed him into someone who'd tell them anything they wanted to know. To find out where his TARDIS was."

Dawn doesn't get it.

"I've been stupid — thinking of time as just one dimension, like a human," Seo says. "As if cause and effect are simple. As if the Vengeance Demons came into power, and therefore, to revenge themselves on me, they altered the paradox to change Mom and Father. But time's  _not_  just one dimension. It's got more complexity than that. Especially when people are changing history."

The Doctor sees what she means, instantly.

Dawn doesn't. "Huh?"

The Doctor explains it. Imagine a situation in which cause leads to effect. "You're doing chores, mopping the kitchen floor, but you leave the floor wet, because you're hungry and have decided to break for lunch," the Doctor explains. "You make yourself a jam sandwich, but before you can eat it, you slip on the floor and drop it. The sandwich winds up getting swallowed by the dog, and… no lunch."

"Okay."

"But now imagine that you  _really_  wanted that jam sandwich," the Doctor continues. "So you build yourself a time machine, and go back to that moment and dry the floor, so you didn't slip and drop it."

"Okay," says Dawn.

"The cause for you drying the floor would be because you'd seen a future in which you hadn't," the Doctor says. "It isn't caused by anything in a one-dimensional time continuum. If you hadn't seen the future, you'd never have dried the floor in the first place."

"And if you couldn't cross to that point in time," Seo prods, "because you don't dare touch something else that you want to make sure remains constant?"

"Then you go back further, and change something else — to make yourself  _want_  to dry that floor, in your own past!" the Doctor continues. "Perhaps... you go back into your childhood, and make yourself become obsessed with drying floors. Or you..."

He stops.

Suddenly worried.

"Oh, dear," says the Doctor. "I'm beginning to see where you're going with this."

"I don't," says Dawn.

"The reason the Doctor's alive," says Seo, "even though time says Gallifrey should never have been moved and he should have died with everyone else... is because  _this_  is the Doctor from the  _old_  continuity — the one who moved Gallifrey into another universe and won the Time War. He survived while everyone else died, simply because Gallifrey was in one universe, and he was in another."

"But that's not what he remembers!" Dawn insists.

"Of course not — because they wanted a jam sandwich," mutters the Doctor. "So they reached back into my past... and changed who I was."

Dawn still doesn't get it.

"They figured out the Gallifreyan technology by themselves, Aunt Dawn," Seo explains. "Then came back to Earth and started using their powers to take over the universe. But imagine, if that had happened... what the effect would have been? If Father had never been changed."

"The Doctor — the old, normal Doctor — would have figured out what the vengeance demons had done," says Dawn, "and he would have come here, to Earth, to stop them."

"By…?" Seo prompts.

"By… finding and tracking down the one person who knew about vengeance demons," Dawn realizes. "Buffy! The unaltered, normal Buffy!"

Seo agrees.

"I think... Mom and Father came up with a plan, together, to take down the vengeance demons," says Seo. "Something to do with the TARDIS. Father must have sent it away, when the Vengeance Demons found it out. And no matter how much the Vengeance Demons tried, they couldn't get its location out of him."

"So they went back in time," the Doctor mutters, "and changed me into the sort of person... who'd tell them."

"They'd probably have had a hard time interfering with Gallifrey's past, without changing the events that led to them getting into power in the first place," Seo agrees, "but... they'd figured out that Father and Mom are linked. Change Mom, before she jumps into the Portal..."

"And you change the Doctor!" Dawn realizes. "That's why Willow wasn't allowed to interfere with Buffy. Because they were using Buffy to reshape the Doctor!"

Seo nods, again.

"But, of course, what they failed to realize," the Doctor concludes, "is that, by changing me, they've now turned me into someone... who'd never have sent my TARDIS away in the first place. So I don't know where it is."

"But it's still gone," Dawn says.

"Yes," says the Doctor, pondering over this. "The other-me must have worked out some way to make that stick, even in the eventuality that they changed my own timeline."

Seo reminds Dawn of what Willow had said — that D'Hoffryn wouldn't be happy to let Seo and Dawn visit the Doctor.

"Whatever my parents figured out, whatever plan they made to defeat the vengeance demons," says Seo, "it's something both of them knew about. And something... that you and I also know about, Aunt Dawn. Something that happened when Mom and Father were together on some other adventure. D'Hoffryn doesn't want us to see the Doctor, because he's afraid that you and I might work out what their plan was, and take him down."

(This would probably make more sense if D'Hoffryn caught Seo and Dawn with the Doctor, earlier, and they're having this whole conversation with the Doctor while they're on the run from D'Hoffryn.)

"Or perhaps someone I once met," the Doctor proposes, "whom I didn't, anymore. A companion, or..."

Suddenly, Dawn punches Seo. Hard.

"You!" Dawn shouts. "I'm going to kill you, Seo!"

The Doctor struggles to separate Dawn from Seo, who has no idea what the hell is going on. She thinks maybe Dawn's been rewritten by the vengeance demons.

But that's not it at all.

"Someone they both met, you said!" Dawn shouts. "Oh, yeah, it all makes sense, now! What's the one thing that remained the same, before and after the Vengeance Demons took over! What's the real reason the Time Lords wanted to wipe me out of time?!"

"Dawn, what are you...?"

"You told me it was okay!" Dawn screams. "You told me it wouldn't hurt the baby! I thought you knew something, Seo. Something that made this not like Amy Pond and the Silence. But you didn't know anything! You were wrong!"

Neither the Doctor nor Seo know what Dawn's talking about.

But Dawn, suddenly sapped of strength, tumbles to the ground. Sobbing.

"You killed my children, Seo!" Dawn says. "You killed my children!"


	27. Chapter 27

This is where the climax happens, which should be extremely action-packed, but I haven't worked out what it actually is, yet.

But during the climax, we learn the truth about why the Time Lords on the High Council really wanted to take Dawn and kill her husband. And why they interfered with established history to do so.

It wasn't _just_ politics or making Jenny look bad, after all.

Remember that when Dawn had helped Seo cross all those universes and rescue the Moment, she'd been pregnant with her third child, Will. At the time, Dawn had been nervous about this, for the sake of the baby. Remembering Amy Pond.

Seo had reassured Dawn, by saying that the child wasn't conceived while traveling through the Time Vortex, and that — anyways — she and Dawn weren't traveling through time, they were traveling across universes.

On Gallifrey, the Moment had warned Seo that rescuing her would mean sacrificing someone that Seo never wanted to sacrifice.

* * *

Here's the full truth about what had happened, after the Vengeance Demons wiped out the Time Lords and took over Gallifrey's technology:

Seo's reasoning was along the right path.

When Gallifrey was destroyed and history rewritten by the vengeance demons, at first, the Doctor and Buffy had both been exactly the same way as we all know them, in their TV shows and in this series. Kind, compassionate, and heroic.

The Doctor had not been in the same universe as Gallifrey, and had survived because of that. However, he soon realized what had happened to the Time Lords, and how the Vengeance Demons must have gained control over time.

The Vengeance Demons had used Time Lord time scoops, but the Doctor had managed to evade them (with the dexterity he'd used back when the Time Lords had used such scoops). The Doctor, instead, landed on Earth — where he found Buffy.

At that point, Buffy was on Earth, leading a resistance group against the Vengeance Demons in the hopes of regaining planet Earth for humans.

It took a little while for the Doctor to get Buffy's memory of the original timeline back. But he did so. When he did, Buffy had told him all about Dawn's little escapade into another universe in order to save the Moment. And how Dawn had been pregnant at the time.

The Doctor had remembered Amy Pond, and put two and two together.

"The Time Lords might be bureaucratic busy-bodies," the Doctor told Buffy, "but they still don't wipe people out of time just as a political power-play. If they did something as horrible as wiping out an entire family, it's because the Time Lords saw something. Something that'd happen generations from now, because of that child. They wiped out all three of Dawn's children, just to make sure that future never came about."

"How can we be sure?" Buffy asked.

"If the vengeance demons have taken the Time Lords' place," the Doctor replied, "then Dawn's distant decedents will eventually threaten the vengeance demons, now that time's changed. If I'm right… the vengeance demons will be trying to hunt down Dawn's children and kill them — just in case."

Sure enough, they soon discovered that the Doctor was right. The Vengeance Demons were now trying to kill Dawn's children. The Doctor and Buffy saved Dawn's kids, then placed them into the TARDIS. The Doctor sent the TARDIS away to where the Vengeance Demons would never be able to find it.

He'd wanted to send Buffy away with it, too. But Buffy insisted that if she went, then the demons would know something was up. Better to stay here and find some plan to stop all the Vengeance Demons from destroying history.

They did try, but the Vengeance Demons figured out the plan and changed time so that it failed. Buffy died, the Doctor regenerated (12th to 13th Doctor). Since the Doctor was weak after the regeneration, they were able to capture him and catch him up in a temporal bind.

"We've kept you alive for one purpose, Doctor," D'Hoffryn explained, "and one purpose, only." He turns on the Doctor, making him suffer horribly. "Where is the TARDIS? Where are the children? What did you do with them?!"

The Doctor says nothing.

In actuality, the Doctor had pulled a temporal trick with Dawn's children, making it so that when they entered his TARDIS, they effectively disappeared from history. People could remember them, but as a kind of dream.

That meant the children were permanently outside the Vengeance Demons' reach.

"If you don't give us the TARDIS and the children, Doctor," D'Hoffryn warned, "I can make your life a living hell."

The Doctor didn't tell him anything.

So D'Hoffryn and the other Vengeance Demons subjected the Doctor to all kinds of tortures and torments. Trying to force him to tell them how to get to the children, or just give them a hint.

But he didn't.

"You don't want all the children," the Doctor guessed. "Just the third one. That's the one you think might beat you."

D'Hoffryn begrudgingly admitted that the Doctor was right.

"Let me guess," the Doctor says. "After the Time Lords met Seo, they figured out — if she was from the Axis, there was almost certainly a copy of her, back on Earth, with fewer powers but still the ability to unlock universes. A few Time Lords decided to scoop up Dawn, to use her to get the planet back to the correct point in space-time. In our universe. And the rest of the Time Lords agreed... because they'd foreseen something worse, and knew that wiping Dawn out of time would prevent it."

This was right enough.

"The Time Lords knew that Dawn's third child," D'Hoffryn said, "was born... with certain genetic variations. It wasn't quite like your own experience with Amy Pond and the Silence — after all, without an influence like Madam Kovarian to bring these genetic variations out, the variations simply remained dormant in Will's DNA. As they will in his decedents' DNA. And in their descendants' DNA. And so on. For many generations."

"But eventually, those traits will become dominant," the Doctor guessed.

"The Time Lords foresaw a day," D'Hoffryn agreed, "far in the future, when one of Will's descendants... would have the ability, cunning, and skill to invade the other universe, wage a miserable war against the Time Lords. And destroy them utterly."

And, of course, when the Vengeance Demons figured this out, it was obvious what the implications were. If there were no Time Lords around... this same decedent would rise up and destroy the Vengeance Demons.

"But you know this," D'Hoffryn says. "That's why you took the child away and hid him. You programmed your TARDIS to alter his genes and bring out those genetic variations, thus making him powerful enough to destroy us."

"Did I?" the Doctor asks. "Doesn't sound like me. Harming innocent children?"

D'Hoffryn points out, however, that the Doctor would have done it because he'd know it could be undone, later. Distract the Vengeance Demons enough, and the Doctor could double back and save Gallifrey from the catastrophe that had destroyed it. Eliminate the Vengeance Demons' grip over history.

Everything would be undone. Will would be a normal child, again.

"Nah, that's not like me, at all," the Doctor said, playing dumb. "You're just playing for time."

Of course, the Doctor would not give in and tell the Vengeance Demons where his TARDIS was, no matter what the Vengeance Demons did to him.

The torture went on for a long time.

Then, one day, it stopped. And the Vengeance Demons seemed to forget about the Doctor.

The Doctor only found out why when the Moment showed up, inside his cell. To visit.

"And here I was, thinking you were good," the Doctor says to her. "All that convincing me to save Gallifrey... was it all for this? So you could give the technology to your chums?"

The Moment says something enigmatic. About the greater good, perhaps? Or being forced into a situation where she has to comply? The Doctor, however, is beyond furious. "

Don't push me off with something like that!" he snaps. "They'd never have been able to absorb all that knowledge, if there weren't someone else around who could explain it. Someone... like you."

The Moment doesn't deny this.

"You made me keep the Time Lords alive, just so you could take them down, later!" the Doctor roars. "And steal their technology! A willing collaborator for a bunch of demons! Doesn't matter if you're sentient or not... you're still just a weapon, deep down inside. All you want to do is kill."

The Moment then tells him that the Vengeance Demons have decided to force him to talk.

And she's decided to help them.

By changing _him_.

"It won't work," the Doctor warns her. "Change me, and they'll lose all hope of ever finding out anything."

"I know," says the Moment.

She grabs hold of him, and he cries out as she sinks deep into his timeline. And begins to reach out for that paradox.

* * *

So that's what really happened.

I don't know how much of that would have actually gone into the story.

* * *

Another thing the readers discover is that the Moment was the one who gave the Vengeance Demons the ability to combine their powers into a single large crystal.

Thus, giving Seo the ability to make her wish in the first place.

And condemn Gallifrey.

(Story plot continues in next chapter.)


	28. Chapter 28

Seo and Dawn do, eventually, confront the Moment. Seo demands to know why the Moment did all of this. Why did she make Seo destroy the world and the universe?!

"You told me... or _will_ tell me... that the Time Lords should have been wiped out, long ago, in vengeance for what they did to your aunt," says the Moment. "But when you told me that, the Doctor had died on Trenzalore. Now, things have changed. Timelines have altered. With the Doctor alive, the Time Lords were suddenly eager to cover the whole thing up. And I was given the chance to show you what would happen... if you'd gotten your wish, and the Time Lords were all dead."

"But I wasn't really dead!" Dawn protests. "I was a stone segment!"

The Moment looks at Dawn. Very sadly.

"You were dead," the Moment tells Dawn. "Really dead. I'm sorry."

"How?" Dawn demands.

"Your energies saved the Time Lords," the Moment tells Dawn. "But the energies were so powerful, that they ripped through the crystal lattice. Your segment shattered into a million pieces. Gallifrey was only saved... could only be saved... because you died."

Dawn goes white at this.

"No," Seo cuts in. "It's because I never showed up. I could have controlled those energies. I could have stopped this!" She gets even more angry. "Why didn't they let me know?! Why didn't anyone tell me?!"

"Some wanted you to know, others did not," says the Moment. "If you'd turned up to save the day... it would have made you and Jenny look like heroes. Not everyone on Gallifrey wanted that."

"They'd have sacrificed Dawn, just to score a political point?!" Seo cries.

"No. But they would to wipe out her family's future."

Seo gets absolutely furious. She starts saying that maybe the Time Lords deserve to be dead, even though she could now see what harm such a thing would do. Maybe instead of saving the Time Lords, she should just go back and do a more thorough job of wiping them out!

"And that's why I did this," said the Moment. "Showed you this. You never forgave them for killing your aunt, Seo. Especially not when you learned about her children. But they never forgave you, either — for what you did, next."

* * *

 

Now we get to see what happened in the timeline in which the Doctor died on Trenzalore.

In that timeline, things begin basically the same.

Dawn is captured, her husband killed. She winds up on Gallifrey, escapes, and goes off to find Jenny.

Everything happens just as it did for Dawn, this time around.

Except... at the end. Instead of walking into her own death, willingly, Dawn put up a fight to the bitter end. Jenny reassured her that the Doctor knew how to convert segments back into people, and Dawn shouted, "You think he can still do that from beyond the grave?!"

At another Time Lord's provocation (Weryn), Jenny wound up converting Dawn into a segment through force and trickery. Dawn screaming the whole time to for Jenny to please find another way!

Then Jenny activated the machine.

Promising Dawn that, "I'll find a way to get you back. I swear."

But when it was over, Jenny looked through the smoke. Horrified. As she raced out and tried to gather the shattered pieces of Dawn's broken crystal segment, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Jenny," said Weryn. "What have you done?"

Jenny looks up at him.

"And right before the President resigns!" Weryn shook his head. "How do you expect to be President of Gallifrey, now? After the people discover you've murdered Dawn Summers-Peters, the human who saved our lives?"

Jenny realizes what he's talking about. The Matrix would hold the evidence showing that Jenny had forced Dawn to her death.

Weryn had given her the idea. But only because he'd known what would happen, next.

"You wanted this to happen!" Jenny accused. "So I'd look bad!"

Weryn shakes his head. "The evidence doesn't lie, Jenny."

Jenny scrambles to collect all the fractured fragments. "I'm not letting her die just because of some Gallifreyan politicians, vying for political power!" Jenny insists. "I'm finding a way to get her back, Weryn. And you can't stop me."

Jenny tried everything. Even went back in time, to Earth, to briefly interact with the Monks of the Order of Dagon. And learn their secrets.

But it was ultimately futile.

Jenny learned that Dawn had died so that Gallifrey could live. To undo that would mean the fall of the Time Lords — if not now, then a long time from now. When Dawn's descendent brought them to their knees.

Then Seo discovered the truth.

Now, cut to Seo, in the timeline where the Doctor died on Trenzalore. She was so furious about Dawn's death, she returned to Gallifrey and attempted to destroy it.

"Father rewrote time," Seo said to the Time Lords, "but that was wrong. You should have stayed dead. You deserve to be dead. All of you!"

Seo explained that she was going to destroy Gallifrey because she had now learned that Time Lords should never have this kind of power over anything. She wanted to stop them from doing this to anyone else!

(But there's definitely a little bit of vengeance in the action, too.)

Jenny raced up to Seo, before she could destroy the world, though. She talked to Seo, and managed to convince her not to destroy it — by saying, "I'm not leaving. Kill them, and you kill me, Seo. And we both know you won't do that."

"I will if it means they never do this again!" Seo insisted.

Jenny managed to negotiate between Seo and the Time Lords, though. Jenny negotiated the lives of Dawn's children — all of them — to be restored to normal, in exchange for Seo letting the planet go.

The Time Lords agree because they figure they can find some other way to get rid of Dawn's descendants.

And Seo agrees because she knows she _wouldn't_ actually kill Jenny. She doesn't really have the guts to destroy a whole planet. And she really does want Dawn's children back.

The moment Seo surrenders, the Time Lords attempt to execute her. Jenny intervenes and smuggles Seo off the planet, warning Seo never to return.

Seo replies by telling Jenny not to worry. She'd be very happy never to set eyes on Gallifrey again.

"But if they ever try anything like this again," Seo warns, "they're all dead. Even if I have to kill both you and myself to do it."

* * *

 

Back to the vengeance demon timeline. In which the Doctor survives past Trenzalore, and the vengeance demons have taken over the Earth and the universe.

Seo is now starting to understand why the Moment gave the vengeance demons this kind of power.

"You gave me the vengeance I wanted," Seo says. "And the ability to see its results."

And, of course, she gave Seo back Dawn. So that Dawn could make her choice, now that she really knew what was at stake.

Dawn gets it, suddenly.

"That's why the vengeance demons didn't kill me, when I tried to go against them," Dawn realizes. "It's why they haven't even tried to hurt me! Because their power wasn't in that crystal Seo held."

Yes.

Their power is in Dawn.

Because Seo wished that Dawn was still alive. So, while Dawn's still alive, all this can continue, and the change the vengeance demons made to the timeline will become permanent. The Vengeance Demons had been planning to make sure Dawn stayed alive forever, but they'd been distracted by the search for her kids.

And the Moment had made sure they stayed distracted.

"My life means the death of the Time Lords," Dawn says. They're on the top of a high-rise building, and Dawn heads to the edge. "My death means the destruction of the vengeance demons."

Seo tries to stop her. Offers to give herself up in Dawn's place.

But Dawn says no.

"It wouldn't work, Seo," says Dawn. "No jumping-into-a-portal-to-save-me, this time. I'm the one who was on Gallifrey, when it needed saving. I'm the one you wished to be alive — causing all this. There's only one person who can stop this... and it's me."

"Seo is fully human, now, anyways," the Moment adds. "Her key energies are uncontrollable. It wouldn't work."

"But Seo will go back to normal, if I jump, right?" Dawn asks. "Everything will go back to normal. Buffy. The Doctor. Seo. All those Time Lords."

"Yes."

Seo begs Dawn not to do this. She'll find another way! There has to be some way to save the universe and Dawn, at the same time.

"I'm not giving up my life for the universe," Dawn says. "Don't you get it, Seo? I'm giving it up for my children."

Seo doesn't understand.

"The Doctor's alive," said Dawn. "And because of that... Weryn's plan failed. Remember that."

Then she jumps.

And time gets reset back to where it was, before.

* * *

Seo finds herself back on Gallifrey.

A piece of crystal in her hand.

And Jenny is next to her, warning her, "Don't do anything stupid, Seo. I know you're upset — but the Time Lords aren't monsters! You don't know what things would be like if they were gone!"

Seo sighs.

And smashes the crystal underfoot.

"Yes, I do," Seo says. "I hate it. But I do." She turns to the door. "Now let's break out of here and find Weryn."


	29. Chapter 29

* * *

Braxiatel and Romana, by the way, get involved in a huge adventure which winds up with both of them being nearly killed. But they manage to get out of it by doing something clever, which saves both their lives. Romana retreats into hiding. Braxiatel only manages to sneak back into the capital at the very end of the story, in order to find Jenny.

* * *

Back to Jenny and Seo.

It's soon clear that Weryn is just pretending he was subjected to the memory wipe. But he actually knows exactly what happened.

"I didn't know she was the Doctor's companion!" Weryn protests, when he's pressured to tell them everything. "Look, you can't tell him. Whatever you do, you can't tell him what we did!"

Seo figures out what he's talking about, after some confusion.

"When Jenny said that Father could change people back into segments," Seo mutters, "Dawn had total and complete faith in him. Jenny didn't have to force Dawn to become a segment — Dawn turned herself into one."

"And there's only one kind of human," Weryn agrees, "who'd walk into her own death, and still be completely confident the Doctor could get her out of it. A companion."

"You erased everyone's memories of Dawn, just to make sure Dad wouldn't find out about this!" Jenny realizes. "An elaborate and dangerous plan to make me look bad... and Dad foiled it just by existing!"

* * *

Seo and Jenny reveal the truth in court. And use the Matrix as evidence against the individuals who carried out the plot against Dawn.

The schemers protest, insisting that since Seo can manipulate the Matrix, she fabricated the whole thing.

"Fine," says Seo. "If you're so sure you're innocent... I'll just drop it. Go back to my universe. And tell Father everything."

Now they're much more willing to bargain.

Seo drives a hard deal. She says she's willing to let this whole thing drop, but she wants certain things from the Time Lords before she does.

"First," says Seo, "Dawn died a hero, saving you all. I want to make sure you remember that."

"And if Dad asks us," Jenny puts in, "that's what we'll tell him, too."

They agree to lift the memory wipe.

"Second, and this is the most important," Seo says, "you give me back Dawn's kids. All of them."

This is a much bigger issue, and the Time Lords almost don't accept it.

But Seo reminds them that the only reason the Time Lords are still alive is because the Doctor crossed his own timeline — multiple times.

What if they told the Doctor what the Time Lords had become, and he decided to cross his own timeline one final time? And undo his saving them?

The Time Lords reluctantly give in.

* * *

 

The Epilogue

* * *

Jenny is preparing to leave Gallifrey.

Braxiatel enters, having snuck back into the capital.

"The Victor took Dawn out of time," Jenny says. "Killed her before she should have died. That means all those times Dawn saved the world... there won't be anyone around to do it, anymore." She finishes packing a suitcase. "Someone has to fix things. Keep history on track. Might as well be me."

"You're leaving," Braxiatel says.

"I appealed for the loan of a TARDIS and a way back to my universe," says Jenny. "They've agreed."

Braxiatel nods, slowly. Then: "Are you planning to ever come back?"

Jenny can't answer this question.

It's clear that she's still very angry about what has happened.

"You mustn't blame yourself," Braxiatel says, "just because politicians acted irresponsibly to make you look bad. It's hardly your fault."

"No," says Jenny. "It's yours. Isn't it?"

Braxiatel hesitated.

"It wasn't hard to figure out, Braxiatel," says Jenny. "Rassilon told the Victor about the Key — that's obvious. But someone else gave the Victor the technology to scoop Dawn up and bring her here. And when the crisis was happening, everyone kept expecting my sister to show up and stop this. So I thought to myself... what Time Lord would have been that self-confident that he could summon my sister at the exact right time? Who could that possibly be?"

"I was never intending to kill Dawn Summers," Braxiatel replies. "That was never part of the plan."

"But you still didn't summon my sister, did you?" Jenny asks. "Why?"

"Perhaps some questions are left unanswered."

"Why?" Jenny demands.

"Because Weryn and his associates learned the plan," he said, "and used it against me."

He explains that he'd been _intending_ to summon Seo to Gallifrey at the same moment as Dawn was plucked out of time. Seo would have arrived on Gallifrey and worked out what was going on, then rescued Dawn. And, best of all, when Seo arrived to rescue Dawn, she'd also have discovered Braxiatel's trail of clues.

"A trail that leads right back to Rassilon," says Jenny. "Yes, I know that. But I still don't know why you wanted to kidnap Dawn in the first place!"

Braxiatel says nothing for a long time.

"Well," he says, at last, "I had to make your sister angry enough to do something drastic, now. Didn't I?"

Yeah, Braxiatel was trying to make Seo believe that Rassilon was killing Dawn. So that Seo and Jenny would overthrow Rassilon.

"And when you found out you'd missed your chance," Jenny guesses, "and the Victor had scooped Dawn up too early — you figured the best solution would be to wait it out until Dawn was dead. Then summon Seo, afterwards, and use Dawn's death to fuel her rage and desire for vengeance — so she would take out your political opponents?"

"Rassilon is more than a mere political opponent," Braxiatel replies. "You've seen how dangerous he is. Someone must take him down."

"By why Seo?"

"Given her history… who better?"

Jenny turns back to her packing.

"I was doing it for Gallifrey," Braxiatel tells her. "You know I had to do it."

"But at what cost, Braxiatel?" Jenny insists. "I know you'd do anything to save this planet. But murdering an innocent, brave, noble spirit, like Dawn! One life, to save…"

"I told you, I never intended for Dawn to die," Braxiatel repeats.

Jenny freezes.

"Five lives were lost," Jenny realizes. "Dawn. Her husband. And... her children."

Braxiatel says nothing.

"Killing Dawn wasn't part of your plan," says Jenny. "But killing her husband and her children... that always was."

"I was planning to restore two of her children," Braxiatel replies. "I'm not heartless."

"But not the important one," says Jenny. She shakes her head. "I thought you were on the side of good and right. But you were willing to sacrifice a child, just to stop something his descendants would do!"

"I didn't make the decision lightly, Jenny," says Braxiatel. "I never make these decisions lightly."

Jenny turns back to face him. "Just because there was a chance that his distant descendent would wipe us out?!"

"Yes!" Braxiatel shouts back. "Always."

Jenny says nothing.

"We were very nearly wiped out, once before," Braxiatel says. "I watched the Daleks do it. I watched them nearly drive us all to extinction! A million years of civilization and culture, wiped out in an instant! I can't let it happen, again! I won't let it happen, again!"

Jenny stares at him. "You don't trust yourself," she realizes. "You know there's this anger and fear inside you. You're afraid of it."

"It's inside all of us, Jenny," Braxiatel replies. "Ever since the War."

"That's why you wanted me in charge," says Jenny. "That's why you were willing to go to such great lengths to make my sister and I take over. It wasn't just to stop Rassilon. It was to stop you. To stop everyone." "

Yes."

Jenny isn't sure what to say to this. Anything she could spit back at him, any retort she could come up with... would only make his point for him.

"We need you, Jenny," says Braxiatel. "You've seen what we could become, without you."

Jenny turns away, and picks up her bags. "I have to think about this."

She goes off to her new TARDIS, to leave.

"Jenny," says Braxiatel, before she does, "you know what I did was right. You know it was for the best."

She thinks about the moment when her sister first found out that the Time Lords had killed Dawn. And, for a few seconds, Jenny had believed that Seo would tear apart the whole planet — killing both herself and every Time Lord there — just to stop them ever doing it again.

She thinks about Braxiatel and what he did. She thinks about Weryn and the people he worked for, willing to nearly wipe out the planet, just to gain some political power and wipe out one child.

And the Victor — willing to end multiple universes, just to make sure the Time Lords were never threatened again.

"Yes," Jenny says, finally. "I do know." She unlocks the door to her new TARDIS. "That's how I know… I have to leave Gallifrey. I'm starting to think like a Time Lady."


	30. The Bet

 

"…and that's the Blinovitch limitation effect," the Seventh Seo finished explaining to her two companions. She grinned. "In a nutshell."

Stacy pouted.

"Sorry," Seo said, with a small wince. "But trust me, traveling back in time to do yourself is… well…" She thought a moment. Then shook her head. "It doesn't seem right, somehow."

"Two of me, two of her," Tim put in. "We thought it was the best foursome we could come up with."

"You could join in," Stacy offered. "Two of you, too! A… six-some!"

"Except that, due to Blinovitch, it would still be an impossible combination," Seo replied. Paused. "Except for me. And… well… with my other faces… there could technically be seven of me at once…"

Stacy and Tim looked at one another. Then back at Seo.

That was where the bet began.

* * *

"You're kidding," said the Fifth Seo. Glancing up at her future-self, across the console. "Tell me you're kidding."

"Of course I'm not kidding!" Seven said, with a bright grin. "Told you! I made a bet with my companions! So now… I'm off to win the bet!"

Her eyes danced as she said it.

The ship hit a jolt, and Five scuttled around, staggering, trying to right Oliver's course. She pulled down a lever, which came off in her hands. Swore beneath her breath.

Then dug in a toolbox for some needle-nose pliers.

"It doesn't have to lead anywhere else," Seven explained. "Just a snog!" She paused. Then added, "I mean, unless you  _want_  it to lead—"

"Moon-Sphere calling Oliver," came a voice over the loudspeaker. "Seo? Are you there? Still alive?"

"Alive, and… just… tweaking… trajectories," the Fifth Seo reported, using the needle-nose pliers to yank the sawed-off lever downwards.

"It's just… I'd really like to win the bet," Seven continued, stumbling as Oliver bucked, yet again. "And since you're the most attractive of my other-selves, I thought—"

"Yeah, in case you haven't noticed," Five cut in, sharply. Waving at the nearest window. "About to crash into a sun, over here!" She scurried around, punching some buttons elsewhere on the console. "Either help, or get out."

Seven shrugged.

Then made her way over, to help out.

"So… you're saying you don't object on principle," Seven clarified. "It's just that  _now_  isn't the best—"

"I  _do_  object on principle," Five retorted. Yanking up another lever. "But this is  _still_  a bad time. Now stabilize those parameters! I don't want to see a barbecue from the wrong end!"

* * *

The Sixth Seo just stood in the kitchen.

Her hands still in soapy water, dish dropping in the bucket with a plunk.

As her jaw dropped.

"What?!" Six cried.

"A snog," the Seventh Seo repeated. "Or… something more. Just, you know, if it happens to turn into…"

"I have a boyfriend, you know!" Six snapped. Waved a wooden ladle, still drenched in soap-suds, at her future-self. "And I happen to like this one. I'm certainly not going to cheat on him with myself!"

She grabbed up a dish rag, and began to dry off the ladle.

"It's not really cheating," Seven replied, bouncing on her toes. Her eyes twinkled. "Sleeping with yourself. It's more like… very elaborate mast—"

"Don't say it!" Six interrupted. She gave an elaborate sigh, and thudded the ladle down on the table. "Seriously. Don't."

The Seventh Seo tip-toed a little closer. "I'll help with the dishes," she offered. "For a snog."

"No," said Six, turning back to the dirty dishes.

"And I'll—"

"No."

"But I'll also—"

"No." Six rinsed off a plate, then dried it with a dish towel. "And you should be ashamed of yourself for even asking. I mean, at your age!"

"I'm not  _that_  old," Seven said. A little hurt.

"What kind of example are you setting?" said the Sixth Seo, reaching for a frying pan, and scrubbing it in the soapy water. "I've got a teenage daughter, you know. If she found out I'd done something like that… what kind of message do you think that'd send?"

"That she should have fun every so often?" Seven offered.

Six shot her a scathing look. "She gets into enough trouble with time travel as it is." Dried off the pan, and stacked it beside her. "No. And that's my final answer."

* * *

"Seo, come on, we have to—" Jenny began.

Then stopped.

Staring, in horror, at what she saw.

"What are you doing?!" Jenny cried. Pointing. "Who's that?!"

The First Seo hesitated, pulling out of the snog. "She… said she was me," the First Seo admitted. She seemed a little confused about what was going on.

"You're kissing yourself?!" Jenny cried. Then sighed. "Just how narcissistic can one person get?"

The First Seo's eyes went wide. "She started it!" she said, pointing at her Seventh self. "She said that it was standard practice for this to happen to all First-incarnations. I mean, haven't you…?"

Jenny turned on the Seventh Seo.

Who was grinning, ear-to-ear, like the cat that got the cream.

"I've never been molested by my future incarnations," Jenny said. Her eyes narrowing. "Had my life ruined by them? Yes. But they never mentioned anything about snogs."

Seven clasped her hands behind her back. "Well, asking nicely wasn't working," she offered. "So I went for more of a 'surprise! Here's your snog!' thing, this time." She turned back to her earlier self. "And… you know… it could always go further."

Her First-self shot her a look that could melt steel.

"What?" said Seven. "Why is every one of my former incarnations so irate at the thought of sleeping with me? I'm good-looking! I'm—!"

Then Seven noticed she was being cornered by two very angry blond people.

"Or, on second thought," Seven amended, "maybe… I'll ask someone else."

And ran away.

* * *

"…JUST WANT A SNOG!" Seven shouted, through the loud bangs and cracks of guns and explosives.

Four dove to avoid stray bullets, then fired a warning blast at a nearby tankard, which exploded. Dragging her future-self away from the shrapnel.

"Didn't hear you," Four said.

Managed to off one of the enemy, lumbering towards her, with a well-aimed shot. Then scanned the area for any signs of hidden artillery.

The battlefield just kept booming with the sounds of gunfire and war.

"A SNOG!" Seven shouted.

But was cut off by a bomb falling, some ways away.

"A fog?" Four said.

"SNOG!" Seven began, again. "S. N. O… oh, never mind."

* * *

"Don't know who you are, don't care," said the Third Seo, punching a punching bag. She did an expert flip kick, and grinned. Then turned back to Seven. "What'd you want, anyways?"

Seven hesitated. "I… well…"

"Yeah?" said Three. "Out with it. I don't have all day."

Seven fidgeted nervously. "I was wondering… if I could…" She stopped.

Then turned around, and left.

"Can't do it," Seven decided. "Even if it's me. I just can't stand the thought of snogging someone who looks like Glory."

* * *

Her Second self went bright pink.

"I… I don't…" the Second Seo stuttered.

From the other end of Oliver, David Walter Korjensky III — whom Seo had been having a secret affair with behind his wife's back — watched. His eyes going dark, as he realized exactly what was being proposed.

"Two Seos," Dave said.

Second Seo stepped back. Eyes scanning between her Seventh self… and Dave.

Dave raised up his hands. "No, sorry," he decided. "Up to you."

The Second Seo hesitated, even more.

Which was when Seven decided it was time to pull out all the stops.

"Yeah, you don't have to," Seven assured her former-self. "I'm sure Dave will have just as much fun spending a quiet evening at home. With his wife…  _Alonna_."

That clinched it.

"All right, I'm in," Second Seo decided. "But first, ground rules. We can't—"

She was cut off by the beginning snog from her Seventh self.

Who'd finally won her bet.

"Two Seos," Dave repeated. Looked up at the sky. "God, I think I finally believe in you."


	31. Chapter 31

**Weapon Rehabilitation Strategies**

This is a Seo story that basically doesn't include Seo. But takes place during her second incarnation.

For the Doctor, it's unknown-future-incarnation.

The story focuses on the Doctor.

* * *

The Doctor shows up on a planet, alone, and when the planet gets bombarded by an alien invasion, the Doctor soon makes friends who pledge to help him.

The Doctor explains that he came to that planet to track down a dangerous super-weapon, one that could release a pulse-blast that could destroy several solar systems in a single second.

Actually, he didn't find out about it himself.

He landed on the Bipoltoi's ship (the aliens currently bombarding the planet), earlier, and had discovered that  _they_  were after this weapon. So he popped the TARDIS over here first, to see if he couldn't find the weapon before the alien invaders did.

One of his new friends is named Troy. He's there with his girlfriend, Angeline. Troy wants to know why the aliens believe the weapon is here, and the Doctor doesn't have a good answer to that. But he's working on it.

The Doctor — and the aliens invading — have tremendous difficulty finding this weapon, however. They keep being led around in circles.

Troy seems a lot less interested in finding the weapon than in getting the aliens off the planet. He's not pushy about this point, he just quietly redirects them towards removing the Bipoltoi instead of finding the weapon.

Troy also seems to know quite a lot about the Bipoltoi. They're a race famed for the creation of fantastic and horrible weapons. The Doctor knows Troy isn't native to this planet, but since he doesn't look like the Bipoltoi, he clearly isn't one of them. Troy says his own home planet was destroyed by the Bipoltoi when it was testing out one of its latest inventions. Troy managed to escape, but everyone else was killed.

The Doctor, knowing Troy isn't telling him everything, surmises several things from this.

First, the Bipoltoi aren't weapons scavengers, their weapons-makers. They're not finding some alien weapon simply to acquire it; they're trying to gain back something they made, but lost.

Second, the Bipoltoi knew to come here because they were following Troy.

Third, Troy stole the weapon from them. Knows where it is. And maybe even plans to use it against the Bipoltoi.

The Doctor works on an intricate plan that will expose both Troy and the weapon, and send the Bipoltoi home. He basically engineers the situation so that the Doctor will be able to drive the Bipoltoi away — and save Angeline, who's now in danger — provided he gets the energy pack from that super-weapon.

When Troy insists he doesn't have the weapon or know where it is, the Doctor confronts him with everything listed above.

The Doctor figures Troy wants the weapon for revenge.

And asks Troy if he'd really give up his girlfriend's life just so that he could get revenge?

Troy tries to tell the Doctor that he doesn't know anything about what's going on or what the risks really are. But when time's about to run out for the entire planet, Troy gives in.

And unfolds himself.

Turns out, Troy  _is_  the weapon. The Bipoltoi built him to be mean and vicious, hating and wanting to annihilate all their enemies. He was good at his job, and — as they upgraded him more and more — he finally became sentient.

Then, one day, he ran into this woman.

She was a sentient weapon, too, and she convinced him to stop killing people. She and her friend, whom she calls only 'the Moment', managed to rehabilitate him. Then they gave him a new identity and a new home, far away in time and space from where he'd originated.

He's been living here ever since. Just an ordinary person.

And he is, quite frankly, shocked that the Bipoltoi managed to track him down.

The weapon-saving program has safeguards for this kind of thing, of course — but those safeguards had been destroyed by the Doctor when he first arrived, because he mistook them for being what housed the weapon in the first place.

(He first met Troy around there.)

The Doctor guesses that the woman Troy met — who'd rehabilitated him — had frizzy red hair and green eyes. Then adds, "I know her."

Troy and the Doctor, together, save the planet. And Troy winds up safe with his girlfriend, again.

* * *

A little bit of backstory:

During Seo's first incarnation, she'd rescued the Moment and had given her independent motion and been friendly towards her, but Seo wouldn't exactly call her a 'friend'. Seo found her a little weird and a little creepy.

After Seo regenerated, however, she actually grew very close to the Moment. Seo would often go shopping with the Moment and just hang out – even though the Moment always insisted that the fate of the universe could change based on whether or not Seo bought those really cute earrings.

Seo and the Moment also set up a Weapon Rehabilitation program, which they both really prided themselves on.

The Moment is now enjoying a happy life in our universe. When not with Seo, she calls herself "Flara" and works as a peace negotiator in a distant galaxy. Her specialty is convincing people not to detonate planet-shattering bombs.

* * *

**Shopping**

"The fate of the whole universe is in the balance," the Moment explained. "Your future. Your past. I can see it all. I can sift through the grains of time, and understand how one small choice may lead to so much disaster, all because of…!"

Seo cut in.

Sharply.

"So, to summarize," Seo said, looking in the mirror, "you're saying… these earrings  _don't_  look cute on me? That I  _shouldn't_  buy them?"

They were in a department store.

Trying on earrings.

As far as Seo was concerned, they hadn't been talking about anything that concerned the fate of the universe, at all. Only thing at threat was the fate of her bank account balance.

"I'm saying you should consider your decision," the Moment explained. She gestured at a portal. "I can show you a future in which you had bought those earrings… or hadn't… and you can see…"

Seo groaned.

Shoved the earrings off her ears.

"Never mind, I'll put them back," she said, a little frustrated. Grabbed her purse. "Honestly. Those Time Lords should have built you with a casual chit-chat mode. Not just the Doomsayer-Fry-Planets-Alive mode."

The Moment, a little offended, huffed. "Well… those magic monks of yours should have programmed  _you_  not to sleep with other people's husbands!" She picked up the earrings that Seo had been wearing, and examined them. "Still. I supposed we all have our flaws."

Seo cringed. "That's not what I meant! It's just…"

She should have explained this better. Now she'd gone and offended the Moment!

"Look, I'm just saying… you need to relax, every so often," Seo explained to the Moment. "Stop treating everything as such a big deal. You know! Carpe diem! Live in…" She paused. Then laughed at her own joke. "Live in… the  _moment_!"

The Moment frowned. Looking up from the earrings. "I'm always living within a moment. That's why I'm the Moment."

That wasn't what Seo meant.

But Seo figured it wasn't worth explaining.

"And how can I simply ignore the way in which one moment spirals into the next," the Moment continued, returning her gaze to the earrings in her hand, seeing the sunlight filter through the dangling spirals. "And into the next. And into the next. Any little decision might throw the universe into danger."

Seo snatched the earrings out of the Moment's hand.

"Moment," Seo said. "We're shopping." She put the earrings down. "Whether or not I buy a pair of earrings isn't going to change the universe."

The Moment thought this through, for a second.

Then smiled.

Seo hadn't realized that the Moment bought the earrings for her until they were out of the shopping mall and both hanging out having a milkshake, an hour later.

* * *

The rest of this story is the Moment proving Seo wrong.

And demonstrating how the purchase of one pair of earrings can change the entire course of recorded history.


	32. Seo and David Walter Korjensky III get pulled into the Word Lord's reality — Myst Crossover

This is a story involving the Second Seo and David Walter Korjensky III. It's a crossover with Doctor Who and Myst.

* * *

Background to this story, from Big Finish cannon:

The Seventh Doctor and the Word Lord known as Nobody No-One wound up battling across time, space, and reality. The Seventh Doctor eventually trapped Nobody inside the Handovale, which was a living text that died with Evelyn Smythe.

The Handovale was actually the Hand of All. "All" was the name of the Word Lord who created the means to control the very ripples of language into a universe, with pocket universes all of which required a Hand of All to control. Since the Handovale was destroyed in a matter universe, it caused a downwards spiral effect in the Word Lords' own, and the Word Lords' grip over their own universe has begun to fail.

* * *

Some background about Seo's affair with David Walter Korjensky III:

During Seo's first incarnation, she and Dave had settled into a stable relationship. When Seo regenerated into her second incarnation, Dave had seemed okay with it at the start — so Seo had figured things would continue the way they always had done, before.

But Dave couldn't deal with the change.

The more time he spent with this new Seo, the more he felt like  _his_  Seo had died, and he was betraying her memory by dating the person who'd replaced her. He just didn't know if he could love this Seo the same way he had the other Seo — they were so different!

Overwhelmed by the whole thing, Dave broke up with Seo.

Seo was devastated.

Dave, in the meantime, tried to struggle on as best he could. He was now an explorer and adventurer, and always had exciting and death-defying things to do, in order to help save planets or save the galaxy!

On one of these adventures, he ran into a woman named Alonna, who was small and blond and looked a little like Seo had in her first incarnation.

Alonna explained that she was traveling around the universe with a short man with an umbrella, who piloted a time traveling police box. That, Alonna assured Dave, is why she's constantly saving worlds and getting herself into daring adventures.

Well, during this adventure, the two wind up imprisoned together and nearly eaten alive by sentient space slugs. During this time, they get to talking and really hit it off. After the Doctor executes a brilliant plan that causes the space slugs to give up and leave Dave and Alonna alone, Dave asks Alonna to come with him on his next mission.

Alonna agrees, and leaves the Doctor.

Dave and Alonna get very close, and eventually, they get married. For a while, everything between them is very open and honest, and they are both very happy.

Then, one day, Dave runs into Seo, again.

The Second Seo.

Dave starts to realize that he'd been an idiot, believing that Seo was a different person, now, than she'd been, before. He starts to remember all the things he really loved about Seo, and it's clear that she's still very much in love with him.

The first time that Dave cheats on his wife, it's an accident.

Dave swears he just got swept up in the moment and he'll never do it again, and runs away. But… unfortunately… this doesn't wind up being the case.

Seo and Dave begin a long-term affair, behind Alonna's back.

Both of them know it's wrong, but neither of them can actually give it up. Dave feels that he honestly loves  _both_ Alonna and Seo, equally. Alonna, because she reminds him of the First Seo. And Seo, because she is still herself.

* * *

Enough background. Onto the story!

* * *

**Introduction**

The story starts in Seo's ship.

Seo only noticed that David Walter Korjensky III had leapt into her ship after her when she was half-way to the 19th century. She looked up, met his eyes with her own. And sighed.

"You know we can't keep doing this," Seo said.

Dave took her in his arms, looking down into her beautiful eyes and her perfect face. "Does that mean you don't love me?"

Seo faltered.

And Dave took the opportunity to kiss her.

A long, passionate kiss. Which drew both of them into its spell.

"No!" Seo suddenly said, pushing him away. "Dave. Please. This has to end. You're  _married_."

And considering that Dave's wife was one of her father's close friends, Seo felt like she was in permanent lecture-land, whenever she had family reunions. The Doctor was  _never_  going to let her get away with this.

"I don't love her," Dave said, coming over to Seo. He reached out for her, and she let him touch her. "I love  _you_."

Seo's resolve to break off the relationship melted, as he caressed her cheek.

"The marriage was political," Dave insisted. "If I hadn't married Alonna, the whole galaxy would have plunged into a devastating war."

Seo wasn't even listening to his words, anymore.

As she drew herself closer to him.

"My life would have no meaning without you," Dave whispered to her. He kissed her nose. "You know that."

"I'm messing up history," Seo breathed, as he kissed down her neck. "Being with you."

"Do you care?" Dave licked the side of her neck.

Seo groaned.

"No."

"Neither do I," Dave agreed, as he reached around to pull off her shirt.

Oliver buckled, and Seo snapped back to reality. Realized where this was going, and forced herself to stop and shove Dave away.

"We can't," Seo repeated. "We just… can't!" She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that she believed what she was saying. "This has to end. It's wrong."

"Does it feel wrong?" Dave asked her.

Nothing had ever felt more right.

But Seo didn't acknowledge that.

"I love you, Dave," Seo explained. "Really, I do. And if I could be with you forever… I would!" She shook her head. "But I can't. There's too much working against us."

Dave reached out for her — but this time, Seo didn't let him get too close.

"I'm sorry," Seo said, through tears. "But nobody will be able to change things for us. We just… can't do this. Not anymore."

"Nobody's here," Dave insisted. "Nobody will know."

Seo squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. Her mind and emotions swirling about within her. Things she should do, things she could do, things she wanted…

"No, I can't," Seo tried to insist. But she was already falling back into his arms. "I… can't…"

She found herself kissing him, again. Only dimly aware that she, herself, had instigated the kiss in the first place. Dave's hand drifted up her shirt, as they grew closer and closer…

"Oh, now this is the bad part of being me," a voice interrupted.

Seo and Dave jumped back, spinning around to face the interloper who'd just appeared in the ship. A wiry man, carrying a gun, looking shifty and like he was trying to pull something. Something about him seemed… off, Seo realized. Distinctly different on a dimensional level.

"See, I more like those lover's trysts where the couple proclaims, 'No one can separate us!' or 'Nobody can keep us apart!'" He laughed, then blew off the tip of his gun. "That's a laugh. They never knew what hit them."

"Who…?" Seo asked.

But Dave recognized the man.

He jumped in front of Seo, protectively. "Whatever you have against my wife, it's got nothing to do with Seo. Just… get out. Now!"

The man looked at them, again. Suddenly realizing… the person that Dave had been kissing… wasn't Alonna. At all.

"Ooh!" The man clapped his hands. "Now, this is starting to get good. All those times you played brave little soldier boy around your dainty little lady, and you were doing someone else behind her back the whole time! Just wait until she hears about this!"

"Who are you?!" Seo demanded, pushing Dave out of the way. "And just what are you doing on my ship?!"

"Nobody."

"Don't give me that," Seo snapped.

Dave cringed. "No. Really. He's Nobody No-One. It's his name."

Seo stared at the man. "Your name is Nobody? I think that's taking Emily Dickinson too literally."

"Funny!" said Nobody No-One, taking out a sidearm. "I like your bit of skirt on the side, Dave. Very spunky." He cocked the gun. "Still. Shame it has to come down to this. But I did promise the Doctor that if he didn't stop ruining my plans, I'd kill Alonna and her boy-toy. And since I can't afford any witnesses…"

He aimed the gun squarely at Seo.

Dave yanks Seo out of the way, and they both dive for cover, as the Nobody No-One hunts them down through the ship and tries to execute them.

While they're running, Dave tries to explain to Seo what's going on.

"He's a Word Lord," says Dave, as they run. "He gets power from words. So if you say, 'nobody can open the letter', then Nobody  _can_  open the letter."

Seo understands.

"He's from another universe, isn't he?" Seo asks. "With different rules from ours. A universe based on language rather than physical matter."

Dave agrees. Explains that when Alonna had been traveling with the Doctor, it had been while the Doctor was in the midst of following Nobody No-One across universes and dimensions, trying to stop him from causing chaos. As a result, Nobody No-One has been popping up in Alonna's life ever since, to try to harm her or kill her — just to get at the Doctor.

"I love it when you talk about your other woman and my father, when we're alone together," Seo hisses at Dave. "You really know how to ruin a mood!"

Then Nobody No-One traps them in a room with no escape.

"End of the line, hero-boy," says Nobody No-One. "Lover-girl."

"No, wait!" Seo says. "You don't want to kill me. I'm the Key."

Nobody No-One pauses a moment.

"You have five minutes to explain," he says, at last.

"You've been flitting across universes and dimensions," Seo explains, "trying to hunt down one little Time Lord. But even if you can travel between places, you can't manipulate those dimensional and universal walls. You're not God." She steps forwards. "But with the Key, you can be."

This appeals to Nobody No-One.

"Me," says Nobody No-One. "A god!"

He reaches for her.

But she scuttles away.

"It's  _my_  power," Seo informs him. "You can't just take it. Nobody can use my Key powers without my say-so!"

Nobody No-One starts to laugh.

Dave slams his hand against his forehead.

"Seo, what did you just say?!" Dave shouts. "Words have power, remember?"

Seo looks back, confused. "What do you mean?"

"He means," says Nobody No-One, as he accesses her Key powers perfectly, "that if you say nobody can do something…  _I_  can do it. And that means… I've got access to your powers."

Seo's eyes twinkle.

She already knows this. She's been banking on it.

Because Nobody No-One might have the ability to use her Key powers, but he doesn't know how to make them function correctly. So she can manipulate him.

And the universe.

By the time Nobody No-One realizes he's been tricked, Oliver is already flying across the void and heading outside the universe.

"I've got a bit of a thing about using Keys and going home," Seo explains to Nobody No-One. "Never could work out why. But you've tapped right into that. So right now… we're heading to  _your_  home."

Nobody No-One panics.

He knows his own people will kill him for what he's done.

"You win, skirt," Nobody No-One says, retreating. He vanishes. "See you later, lover-boy!"

Seo and Dave run back to the control room, to stop Oliver and turn him back, but can't. The whole thing explodes around them, and they find themselves about to crash into Nobody No One's universe.

A reality formed of words.

"The pathway to our universe has closed up behind us!" Seo realizes. "We're trapped! Not even my Key-powers can get us back!"

"What?!" Dave cries.

Seo looked up at him, across the console. Unable to keep the worry out of her face.

"I always thought no one could stop me from ending my affair with you," Seo told David. "Turns out… I was right. Thanks to Nobody, we're going to be together forever. Trapped in this reality."

Then they crash into the Word Lords' reality.


	33. Chapter 33

**Part I**

Chapter One 

_A long time ago, in the ancient days of the living text that comprises this reality, lived three of the mightiest, greatest Word Lords this reality has ever seen._

_The first was 'All'. It was he who created the very Web of Narratology, along with the Hands of All and the Focalization Change of All, and much of the other theories we use to govern the general laws of narrative that form the basis of the very text of our reality._

_The second was 'Drama', who learned to govern the laws of plot and character. The Coronet of Drama can use the minds and internal flaws of people in our reality to amplify and influence the very structure of the plot itself, creating echoes across the universe._

_And the third, most mysterious Word Lord was known as 'Had Been'. He governed the laws of time and pacing. This far into the future, not much else is known about him._

* * *

… _kcabogdluocyehtosrallocehtybmihdebbargdnadetnawehdroLdroWehtwasehsadewolsevaD_ …

… _back and back…_

* * *

 

The first thing that Seo noticed, during the first second she arrived in that reality, was that time had stopped.

For a whole 3 paragraphs.

It was as if the author was just so stuck on dwelling on that first second that the story wouldn't bother to continue onto the next. And time was frozen, lingering on—

"What does that mean, Part One?" Dave asked, peeling himself up off the floor.

Seo, relieved that the story had moved on from that one second, squinted upwards. "Part One, Chapter One," she muttered. It wasn't as if she could see the words, more that… she knew they were there. Like recalling a book after you'd read it a thousand times. "A universe based on text. On words. Our adventures here must be laid out like a book."

"I meant," David continued, "that starting something with the words 'Part One' usually implies there's a 'Part Two'."

This hadn't occurred to Seo, before.

"Which means we're not getting out of here any time soon," David continued.

"We knew that already," Seo muttered. Which was true, although she hadn't completely believed it until now.

There had to be some way out of this, didn't there?

Seo used to be able to manipulate dimensions just fine. No problem! But that had been back with her aunt, when there'd been two of them. Now that Aunt Dawn was gone…

"Maybe it's a blessing in disguise," Dave proposed. "A new start. A new chance for us."

"In a universe anathema to our own?" Seo shook her head, ducking down under the console. "I don't think so."

"I love you in any universe," said Dave. "I've always said I'd give up anything for you. This is your proof."

Seo looked up. "But I don't want that," she said. "I have a life back home. I have family. Friends. Obligations and favorite planets and favors I'm in the middle of carrying out for people. Those things are important to me, Dave. I'm not giving them up.  Not even for you."

David looked down at the ground. Suddenly realizing all the things about his own universe that he wouldn't want to give up either.

"I guess you're right," he admitted.

Seo stood up. Began playing with the settings and readings on her console. Then shook her head. "It doesn't make sense," she muttered. "All these numbers, they're just… nonsense! I can't—!"

"Seo," Dave interrupted.

Seo looked up.

Then spotted what Dave had spotted. Before, when Seo had glanced out the windows, she'd seen only the unending empty blackness of space. But now… after reading the numbers on the console… the view of those ships began to fade into existence. As if the nonsense Seo had read was giving them meaning and shape and form.

They were tall, glistening capsules, armed with spikes and a grappling hook. And they were circling her ship on every side, narrowing in on her, pinning Oliver in place.

Seo immediately launched herself at the controls to her ship, frantically trying to get away, but the materialization circuit was jammed, and Oliver's systems were still buzzing and whirring, working on overtime as he frantically tried to adapt to this new reality.

Seo smacked the machine, with an angry shout.

"Calm down," Dave urged her. "We don't even know who they are, yet. They might not be hostile, if we explain our position."

Seo looked up at him, her eyes narrow. "If someone showed up in the Earth Empire," she said, "who could destroy the Earth and all its colonies by simply saying the wrong words, or using the wrong spelling when they jot down a note — what would you do?"

Dave froze. "Ah."

"And as to who they are," said Seo, turning back to the controls, "I think it's pretty obvious. Look up at the top of the chapter."

Dave looked up. Squinted. "A long time ago, in the ancient days that made up…" he read. Then stopped. "Word Lords."

"There's no point in including that kind of exposition at the beginning of the chapter if you're not going to use it," Seo agreed. She thunked Oliver again. "Oliver's still calibrating himself to this reality. We can't get away." She ducked down below the console. "Maybe if I—"

Dave held up a hand. Listened. "Can you hear that?" 

"Hear…?" Seo poked her head out, then stopped. As the words began to flow through the air, at first as a whisper, then amplifying louder and louder.

_"…trespass on a foreign universe incompatible with your own. Surrender, or we will use force."_

"What…?" said Seo.

But that was when the grappling hook snatched onto their outer casing, seizing them in a vice-like grip. And another, from the other side.

Dave clung to the console, trying to keep his balance.

"I thought you said we could do the impossible and no one could stop us!" said Dave. "How could they be—?"

"I don't know!" said Seo. "It shouldn't make sense! If we're matter creatures in a universe of words, their weapons should just feel like a sharp insult when they hit. Not a grappling hook!"

"Perhaps they do have matter, here," said David. "Perhaps—"

"No," said Seo. "It should be like Mr. Nobody in our universe. Just like he can flout the laws of our universe, so we should be able to flout the laws of his. There shouldn't be any way that…"

They both fell silent, as — just beside them — a massive hole opened up in empty space. One of the ships surrounded them was dragged inside and swallowed up. The others began to zoom in the opposite direction, hauling Oliver behind them.

"A plot hole," Seo breathed.

Seo does manage to get her ship working, again, and she and Dave speed past the Word Lords, trying to outrun them. The Word Lords give chase, insisting that Dave and Seo are adverse elements in their universe, and must be caught and apprehended before they can collapse everything.

Then the Word Lords open fire.

Seo — in an evasive maneuver — slips sideways into a sort of pocket-universe inside of this universe's reality matrix, which messes up all navigational circuitry. It causes the Word Lords to lose them, for a few moments, and allow Seo and Dave to gain distance.

But Oliver's systems can't cope with the sideways slip, either.

Oliver goes completely out of control, and Seo and Dave crash onto a planet.

* * *

… _nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD_ …

… _and back and back…_


	34. Chapter 34

Cut to Atrus, who's on D'ni, writing. Atrus is the same, here, as he is at the end of the game 'Myst'.

He looks up, when he sees Seo's ship appearing, he assumes that it's someone who's found his island of Myst and who is now coming to rescue him. He's a little surprised that it's a vessel, not a person, and wonders how this craft could have linked through.

Seo and Dave stumble out of Oliver, coughing from the smoke that's emerged in the console room.

They only just have time to determine that they're in a ruin and register Atrus' presence. They need somewhere to hide and Atrus needs someone to enter Riven — so Atrus offers the book (reluctantly, warning them of the danger), on the condition that they save his wife, Catherine. They agree and are about to escape, when the Word Lords show up.

The Word Lords in their CORDISes appear all over the place, and are all armed. They immediately notice the Riven linking book, and zap it with a contraption that seals the pages of the book so it won't open.

Atrus is astounded that they can do this.

The Word Lords then arrest Seo and Dave — "For the crime of being matter beings in a word-filled universe."

Seo protests, telling them that they don't want to hurt or manipulate this universe, and only got here by accident!

The Word Lords don't seem to care. "It's not about what you have or haven't done," they say. "It's the potential. You two  _might_ exert untold powers over this universe. Therefore, we have to act on it."

"But you can't destroy us for what we  _might_  do!" Dave insists.

Atrus steps in, here, to defend them. "He's right. You can't."

The Word Lords look at Atrus, strangely.

"These two have done nothing wrong," Atrus explains. "In fact… they've offered to help me find my wife and rescue her from an unstable Age. You, on the other hand, have sealed my Riven linking book. That Age is unstable, and by sealing it, you've sentenced untold numbers of people to death!"

The Word Lords  _do_  hesitate, now.

They are intrigued by Atrus, whom they immediately recognize as D'ni, and they are also intrigued by Riven. They clearly know all about D'ni culture and all about Atrus, himself.

"What were you doing with that book?" they ask. "Is this some D'ni trick?"

Atrus, still a little perplexed about why they're finding him so interesting, tries to explain. He tells the Word Lords about his plan to send a stranger into Riven to defeat Ghen and retrieve Atrus' wife, Catherine. In the meantime, Atrus himself will remain outside of the book, and write into it. Stabilizing the Age.

"Stabilize Riven?" say the Word Lords. "An age fundamentally unstable — and you can delay its death?"

The Word Lords are now extremely interested.

They put down their weapons, and welcome Atrus in friendship. "Our technology is far more sophisticated than yours," they say, "and our techniques are far more advanced than any the D'ni have ever come up with. We'll gladly put it all at your disposal — to help you evacuate Riven, save your wife, and defeat your evil father." They clap him on the back, leading him to their CORDISes. "But first, of course, you must do something for us."

Atrus stops.

"I can't delay this to run an errand for you!" Atrus insists. "I  _can't_  abandon Riven. Don't you see? Without my help, Riven will be collapse in just months!"

"And the entire universe will fall apart in a little over a week," the Word Lords say. "Riven can wait."

Seo and Dave perk up their ears at this. The universe is in trouble? Atrus is surprised, as well, although he  _has_  noticed a lot of things going wrong, around him.

Atrus starts to come with him, but when he hears the Word Lord general command his troops to, "Destroy the matter creatures and prepare for departure," Atrus refuses, again.

"I'll come with you," Atrus says, "if you spare those two."

The Word Lords think this through. Then allow it. "Very well. But you, Atrus, will watch them every day. You'll judge of whether or not the matter creatures intend us harm. And if you judge them to be causing the destruction of our reality… they'll be put to death on your orders."

Seo is wary of the Word Lords' sudden change of heart, and suspects there's something deeper behind it.

Seo requests that they bring her ship along, when they leave — since the ship is translating the world so that she and Dave can see it. She's even more wary when the Word Lords agree, cheerfully, to comply with her request.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

An excerpt from Atrus' journal:

I left D'ni in a strange capsule, and arrived on a world more intricate and incredible than any I'd seen before. I'd call it an 'Age', but the word feels too… limited, here.

The buildings loom so large that words can't even encompass their grandiosity. The doors whisper the words of the universe as you pass. Even the echo of my footsteps are like the blots of ink on a page, here, and I am more in-touch with my Art than ever before.

Was this what D'ni was like, before it fell?

A place so humming with words and power, that one cannot help but want to write Ages?

When I arrived, the Word Lords explained to me that they were the masters of this universe, and that their homeworld contained links to all Ages. Even the ones that hadn't been written, yet.

I was surprised to discover this was true.

I don't know how they've managed to obtain this. But their technology is incredible and their Art surpasses anything that the D'ni had ever achieved. Perhaps they simply built it into their own Age, themselves.

Ages.

That's why I'm here.

"Our universe is full of these… 'Ages', as you call them," the President of the Word Lords explained to me, as he greeted me. "We, of course, call them what they are — Hands."

I looked at my own hand.

"Our greatest leader, the Word Lord 'All', created order out of chaos by connecting these Hands together, and binding them up in a single living text," the Word Lord President continued. "Under his guidance, we were able to link the Hands together using only words and the breath of living language. But that's under threat."

They told me of a renegade Word Lord, named 'Nobody No-One.'

Nobody No-One had traveled to another universe — a matter universe — to pursue a vendetta against a Time Lord called the Doctor. He had, unknowingly, brought a small section of one of the crucial Hands of our universe, with him. And had lost it.

The matter-creatures of that universe called it the Handovale.

The Doctor discovered the Handovale and used it to trap Nobody No-One. When Nobody No-One tried to escape and destroy every living thing in his universe, the Doctor had no choice but to destroy the Handovale… and kill Nobody No-One.

But even if the Doctor had saved his universe, he had no idea what he'd done to ours.

"A Hand cannot die within a matter universe," the President explained to me. "It doesn't just seal off the Hand from us, like burning a linking book. It destroys the words themselves. The language dies. Every single letter is erased… like the Hand never existed at all."

I cannot imagine such a thing happening to the Ages I write.

Imagine my dear Myst… undone and unwritten.

"The destruction of that Hand has led to the destruction of many others," the President told me. "The words of our entire universe have been corrupted. Some… erased. Our story is breaking down, and Ages everywhere… are dying."

Ages like Riven.

I am now starting to understand why the Word Lords took such an interest in me, when they found me attempting to save Riven. They have been struggling, as well, with their own Art — trying to prevent the collapse of our entire universe.

At least I can evacuate Riven.

The universe… I cannot. If it dies, we die.

I've agreed to help them to stabilize the universe.


	35. Chapter 35

(Journal continues in another pen, clearly written later.)

I can't believe it!

After all that talk of urgency and universal collapse… the Word Lords appear to have lost interest. Whenever I ask to see my Riven book, or to help them to stabilize the universe, they brush me off.

"Go talk to the matter-creatures," they tell me. "Make your judgement."

All I can think of is my wife, Catherine. What must she be enduring, at the hands of my father? Has he taken her prisoner? Has he killed her?

I can't think this.

If the Word Lords wish to determine whether the two strangers have caused our universe's problems, then I suppose I must help. I shall write my impressions of them below.

They are close. Perhaps married? It's clear they love each other, anyways, in the same way I love my Catherine.

Dave is easy enough to understand. He always has to be the hero. Diving into things and trying to save the universe — even when the Word Lords won't let him. He strikes me as a little rash and short-sighted, but basically good inside.

Seo, the woman, is more… difficult to characterize.

The Word Lords make her jumpy, and she has a million and one conspiracy theories concerning them. In particular, she believes that the Word Lords only spared her and Dave because they were interested in my personal life, and my history. She also believes that the Word Lords want something in Riven.

I told her about their library of linking books, that link to every Age. Even the ones that haven't been written, yet!

I asked her why the Word Lords would need my Riven book, when they could go to Riven any time they liked, using their own linking book.

"Because the Word Lords are arrogant pricks who believe they can and should rule the universe," Seo told me. "And everything and everyone inside it. Including  _you_. They're manipulating you!"

I asked why.

But she couldn't answer that.

"They don't need a reason," Seo insisted. "Trust me, I know the type. The Time Lords murdered my aunt and killed her family. They were just the same." Then, looking around, she leaned in closer to me, and whispered, "And why do you keep doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Not really talking to me, but just writing your responses down in that journal?" Seo nodded at my journal, which — at that time — was tucked into a satchel by my side. "Perhaps this conversation is happening in the past, from your perspective. But for me… I'm talking to you, right now. Inside your journal."

This confused me, because I wasn't writing in my journal.

But now that I am… I wonder… if this is what she meant? Is she somehow perceiving this universe differently from me, so that time itself flows differently for her?

"Of course," Seo said. "I just spoke to you, three paragraphs ago. As far as I'm concerned, all the events you're writing about are getting smushed together… along with this conversation."

She held out her hand.

"Now, give me the Riven book," she demanded.

I admitted to her that I didn't have it. I'd given it to the Word Lords.

"What?!" Seo shouted.

But the Word Lords had placed the Age into a stasis bubble, a place where living energy can breathe into an Age — so long as it's small — and keep it stable.

"If the Word Lords get what they want from Riven," Seo warned me, "your wife — and everyone else inside — will be dead."

I felt shaken by this.

But after talking with the Word Lords, again, I've decided that Seo's words can't be true.

Seo then asked about me. She asked about my upbringing, about my heritage, and about the D'ni. She even asked me about Riven.

Riven.

I despair of that name.

The Age my father wrote. An ambitious Age that he should never have written, and as a result — it's falling apart!

I told her none of this.

But she listened as I told her everything about myself and my life — and everything that my grandmother had told me about the D'ni. However, when I told her that D'ni had fallen and that few had survived, she'd laughed.

"Sometimes, ancient races should be wiped out," Seo said. "It's better for everyone, that way."

This seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I want to restart the D'ni civilization," I explained. "Find the survivors and rebuild."

"Are you insane?!" Seo shouted. "It's dead. It's gone! Put it out of its misery, already, and do us all a favor!"

I didn't understand this outburst until later, when I found Dave. And told him what she'd said.

"Seo has a right to feel bitter," Dave told me. "She's the descendent of an ancient, powerful race. The race was wiped out in a massive Time War — until Seo's father went back and changed history so the race survived."

It seems that Seo understood about rebuilding destroyed civilizations.

"And because of that… Seo's aunt was murdered," Dave explained. "Seo knows that Dawn wanted it that way. She knows that Dawn died saving Gallifrey. But it doesn't stop her being bitter about it. She loved her aunt very much, and if it hadn't been for the corrupt nature of Gallifreyan politics, Dawn would never have been in danger in the first place."

I spoke to Seo about this, later.

Seo was very quiet on the subject, at first. But, eventually, admitted that what Dave's story was true.

"There are few times in my life when I've wanted to wipe a race out of the universe," Seo admitted. "When I found out what they did… I thought about it. Very hard."

I asked her what she did to them.

"Nothing," Seo replied. "I left."

This proves to me, beyond a doubt, that Seo  _is_  a good person. She isn't a threat to the Word Lords, or to our universe.

I will go to the Word Lords this evening, and make my report about the two matter-creatures.

I'm certain the Word Lords will believe me when I tell them that Seo and Dave are no threat to us, and that they should be let free from here and allowed to return to their own universe.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Atrus goes into the Word Lords' chamber and gives his judgement about the strangers — that they're good people and don't want to harm anyone.

"I have written Ages all my life," Atrus tells them. "And through exploring those Ages, I've learned not to fear strangers from other worlds, but instead, to learn from them. Their customs and ways might be strange, but if we immediately destroyed them, we'd deprive ourselves of their knowledge and wisdom."

"You're too trusting," the Word Lords tell Atrus. "As evidenced by the trust you placed in your two sons — who burned your Ages and trapped you in the ruins of D'ni."

Atrus tells them what he learned about the strangers, and what he believes their character to be. He trusts that they honestly did come here by accident, and that they don't want to destroy the universe. If anything, Atrus proposes, perhaps they could save it.

The Word Lords think about this.

Then it comes to the Word Lords' attention that Seo and Dave have escaped.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_


	36. Chapter 36

The Word Lords track Seo and Dave down, and find them in the library. The two are restrained, but not killed. Apparently, Atrus' judgement has been accepted, and for that reason, the Word Lords won't kill them.

But the moment that Seo and Dave can return to their own home universe, they must.

"That's not why you're really sparing our lives, though," Seo accuses. "This is all to do with him. With Atrus! What's he to you?"

The Word Lords ignore her.

They turn to Atrus, and praise his oratory skills as being as incredible as his Art of writing Ages.

"Ages," Seo says. "It's interesting, this business of writing Ages. Isn't it?" She folds her arms. "Atrus was telling me about Riven. He said it was an ambitious world that should never have been written — interesting, considering that the Word Lords have written far more ambitious things on a regular basis."

Atrus is baffled that Seo remembers him telling her things that he didn't actually tell her — just wrote in his journal. As if his journal entry had been their conversation.

"You write the rise and fall of galaxies," Seo continues. "Planets. Pocket universes." With a pointed look at Atrus. "Civilizations."

There's a moment of unease in the room.

"But it's not just the really big things you write," Seo continues. "You can rewrite the nitty gritty small things, too. Even to the point of rewriting one single person's life… to make sure they cause certain events to happen. Make those great big civilizations fall." She steps forwards. "Thing is… I know why you're so obsessed with Atrus. I've figured it out."

Seo takes a book off the library shelves.

It is the Book of D'ni, and the chapter she has flipped to is one that's been rewritten and changed, the living language altered. Atrus looks inside the book.

The Word Lords rewrote Atrus' family.

So that his grandmother would destroy D'ni and end that civilization.

"They wanted to make sure you didn't bring it back," Seo explains to Atrus. "The civilization. Or the Art. They were planning to keep you here forever. Just to make sure you couldn't pass on your Art to anyone else."

Eager to change the subject, the Word Lords suddenly produce the Riven book for Atrus, telling him to take Seo and Dave and go inside to save Catherine.

"Riven is now stable," the Word Lords assure Atrus. "Our Laws of Language mean that we can't undo the damage that's been done to Riven already, but we have stopped that damage from going any further."

Atrus takes Riven.

But no longer trusts the Word Lords.

"Why did you destroy D'ni?" Atrus demanded. "Why did you rewrite my family, to make sure that D'ni fell?"

"The same reason the Time Lords wanted to restrict time travel," says Seo. "This lot things writing Ages is  _their_  skill. And they don't want anyone else doing it."

Atrus feels betrayed.

But knows he can't let this betrayal stop him from saving Catherine and evacuating everyone from Riven.

Atrus tells Seo and Dave his plan for Riven. Riven is an Age which his father, Ghen, rules, and Ghen is insane and very dangerous. If Ghen can link out of Riven, he'll wreak havoc — and Atrus can't allow that.

Therefore, Atrus will wait outside, while Seo and Dave link to Riven and find Catherine. He gives them both a 'trap book' that he's written — which looks like a normal linking book, but if you use it, you'll wind up trapped in a dark void with no way out.

Seo stops Dave before he can link through to Riven.

"There's no need to leave anyone behind," Seo tells them all. "Dave and I can't perceive your universe correctly without my ship's translation circuits, anyways. And nothing can break into Oliver. We'll just go to Riven using that!"

They head off to Oliver.

Seo redirects her ship so that it travels through the verbal portal that the living text of the Age has created.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

On the way to Riven, while traveling in Oliver, Seo — suspicious of the Word Lords — flips through Atrus' trap book. She discovers that the Word Lords have torn out a page from the Trap Book, which means the Trap Book won't work.

But she doesn't tell anyone about this.

They land.

Seo gives Atrus the key to her ship and makes Dave surrender his own key. She locks her key and Dave's key up inside the ship, and turns back to Atrus.

"There's only one way back into this ship," she says, "and to the return linking book it contains. You have it." She folds his fingers over it. "Hide it somewhere that only you know. And don't tell anyone where. Not me. Not Dave. Not Catherine. Not even your journal."

They leave the ship.

As they're exploring Riven, Seo and Dave's relationship seems to be breaking down. She and Dave keep arguing, and getting into little fights.

Then Seo gets sucked through a plot hole, and winds up in the past of Riven.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Seo, since she got there, has been trying to work out why the Word Lords are so eager to get Atrus to Riven — and to make sure that Atrus didn't trap Ghen.

Clearly, the Word Lords want Ghen for something.

Question is, what?

The plot hole that Seo has fallen down turns out to be a plot hole that has to do with time. The amount of time between Catherine's showing up in Riven and Seo, Dave, and Atrus showing up in Riven seems to be rapidly fluctuating, changing on a regular basis.

An inconsistency in the plot!

These fluctuations are not caused by the Word Lords, they're caused by the decay of the universe. This gives Seo an advantage, because the Word Lords hadn't expected her to get sucked into Riven's past. Perhaps whatever the Word Lords want to hide from Atrus will be evident, here.

In this timezone in Riven, Catherine is still trying to work against Ghen, and hasn't been captured by him. Seo finds Catherine and speaks to her. From this discussion, and from the evidence that Seo saw in Riven's future, Seo gathers she understands what's supposed to happen to Catherine.

After speaking with Catherine, Seo is certain that whatever the Word Lords are up to, it doesn't just involve Ghen. It also involves Catherine.

Seo also doesn't exactly trust that the Word Lords have actually stabilized Riven.

Seo convinces Catherine to go off and face Ghen. When they do, Seo makes sure that Ghen doesn't harm Catherine by informing him that there's a time machine out there that's powerful beyond belief — and Atrus is the only one who knows where the key to that machine is located.

Catherine is needed alive, as a bargaining chip, for Atrus' cooperation.

As for Seo herself, she tells Ghen that she's there to save his life. But to do that, she first needs to figure out what, exactly, is going on, here.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

The story shifts between the two separate times, one with Seo and Catherine and Ghen, and the other with Atrus and Dave wandering around Riven and working out all the puzzles.

Dave confesses to Atrus some of his love troubles — that he loves both his wife and Seo, and can't give up either. He also mentions that he and his wife have two sons, both children right now. Seo doesn't know that they exist, because Dave knows Seo would never continue the affair if there were children involved — she has no love for Alonna, but Seo won't hurt a child.

Atrus mentions that Dave should spend more time raising his sons, and less time with Seo. He tells the story of his own sons, as a cautionary tale.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Seo, in the past, establishes that Riven is  _still_ unstable, but in a different way. She figures out that its instability is such that it will condense into a singularity if a certain number of measures are met in a particular spot — the island where the Great Tree used to be, before Ghen cut it down. Wondering what's so important about that spot, Seo goes there with Catherine.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Back in the future, Dave and Atrus also make their way to that island.

And thus… the Word Lords' trap is set.

* * *

Seo realizes her mistake when she arrives. She suddenly gets very distinct clues that allow her to see that the Word Lords have already noticed the time discrepancy between herself and Atrus, and how the time between their two timezones keeps changing. The Word Lords have used this to their advantage.

Whether a remnant of the Great Tree, or due to the fact that both Atrus and Dave are on that island, as are Seo and Catherine and Ghen — the energies being channeled on that island are vast, and getting vaster and vaster by the second.

Vast enough to destroy Riven and cause chaos!

Seo realizes the only way to stop the chaos is to get out of the Riven book, and rewrite it from the outside. Seo manages to do that by purposely creating another plot hole — but one that revolves around the Word Lords.

When she jumps through it, she falls out of Riven and winds up back with the Word Lords.

She races over and opens the Riven book back up — just in time to see the Star Fissure energies make the two timezones collide on that island. Combined with the unbelievable force of the island itself and the Star Fissure, the Riven book implodes in a brilliant ball of white light.

Next thing Seo knows, the Riven book — along with Seo's ship, Dave, Catherine, Ghen, Atrus, and everyone else inside it — has transformed.

Into an unspeakably powerful energy source. That can temporarily stop the collapse of the universe.

Through Seo's connection with her ship, she feels a horrible pang. She feels everyone dying — and Oliver dying, with them.

Riven is gone.

All her friends are dead.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_


	37. Chapter 37

When Seo realizes what the Word Lords have done, she's horrified. "You killed all my friends," Seo says, "as a temporary stop-gap solution to the destruction of your own universe?!"

"With this solution, we'll have time to find a permanent solution," the Word Lords reply. "If we hadn't acted as we did… our universe would certainly have ended."

Seo knows there's only one thing left to do.

"I have a permanent solution," Seo says.

She knows that they have something similar to the Key to Time in this universe — they call it the Key to Narratology, and it was mentioned at the beginning of this story. It must have been mentioned for an important reason, right? Or the author would have cut it out.

"I'm the Seventh Segment to the Key to Time in my universe," Seo explains. "Plug me into the Key to Narratology, and the Key would give you lot power over  _both_  words  _and_  matter, along with unheard of abilities. Including the ability to save the whole universe."

(Seo gets this idea from the Time Lords and their trap with Dawn.)

The Word Lords accept this, and try it out.

Seo screams as she gets transformed into a stone segment. However, Seo still manages to maintain some sense of self inside the stone segment, and when her segment is connected to the Key to Narratology, Seo uses the Key's powers to restore Riven to the way it was, before.

Atrus, Catherine, Dave, and Ghen all come back.

Along with Oliver, and all the Riven natives.

Riven is reborn!

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Atrus, Catherine, Dave, and Ghen look around themselves. Surprised to be alive, since they all remember Riven imploding and that they'd all died.

Then Riven starts shaking. Turns out, whatever Seo did to restore Riven only exacerbated its instabilities, and the Star Fissure open doesn't help. Seo might have saved Riven, but only for a little while! It'll be destroyed within minutes!

Atrus, Catherine, and Dave decide that they have to work with Ghen — however reluctantly — so that they can get all the natives off Riven, and then to find a way out of Riven, themselves. Dave, in particular, wants to get off Riven as fast as he can — because he has a horrible feeling that Seo saved them by doing something that risked her own life, and that she now needs their help.

Everyone is a little shocked the Ghen rather happily offers his services. And cheerfully helps them save everyone on Riven and evacuate its people to another Age.

"Now, we must rescue Seo," Ghen tells them, as they return to Oliver.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Back in the Word Lords' domain, the Word Lords are surprised at Seo's control over the Key. But they soon note that she won't be able to pull a stunt like that, again.

The Key is already pulling her into itself. Soon, she will become one with it.

She can't help it.

The instruction's been hard-wired into her.

* * *

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

_…and back and back…_

* * *

Back on Riven, Atrus finds the key to Seo's space ship, which is right where he hid it. They race back, and open up Oliver, then rush inside.

However, to their horror, they find no return linking book in the console room.

Worse still, without Seo, the ship can't really go anywhere, and Oliver is acting very strange, besides. Like it's freaked. Ghen is the one, in the end, who figures that — as this is a space ship — the best way to make it go is to hurl it into space.

See, on Riven, there's something called a Star Fissure. It's a fissure in reality, which leads to outer space. Currently, there's a cap over it… but if they remove the cap, the fissure will suck everything on Riven into it, and make the whole world disappear around them, and turn into stars.

"Yes, of course!" Atrus agrees. "The Star Fissure."

They all open the star fissure, and — as Riven's getting sucked through the fissure — everyone runs back inside Seo's ship.

(In the panic to get off Riven, Ghen and his small retinue of guards is allowed inside, too. Mostly out of haste and pandemonium.)

Everyone is happy to be alive, as Riven disintegrates and they find themselves instead surrounded by stars. They can go! They can find Seo!

The happiness soon disappears, though, as Ghen positions his men to take control of the ship.

"Secure the perimeter," Ghen commands.

Turns out, Ghen was so helpful basically because he knew the Word Lords had unheard of powers, and he wanted these for himself. Now that he had this ship, he could go back to the Word Lords and gain his reward.

He and his retinue aim guns at Catherine and Atrus.

"Real question is… why do I need any of you alive?" Ghen asks.

Dave grabs up a Judoon translator gun from the floor, rolls with it, then jumps to his feet and points it at the base of Ghen's spine.

"You'll keep us alive," Dave explains, "because you've got no other choice. Your guns are useless — but mine's not."

"What?" says Ghen.

(Actually, Dave's bluffing about the State of Grace circuits, which aren't in Seo's ship right now. But it works.)

He claims that Seo's ship has circuits installed in it which mean that no weapons are able to go off inside the ship (it doesn't, actually). Ghen and his men are armed with guns constructed, specifically, to be guns — so they won't work (this might not be true either, since the guns are made of words and aren't made of matter).

But Dave's armed himself with a Judoon Translator Unit.

"The way I'm thinking," says Dave, "you're just a bunch of language all fitted together to form a unit. But if I translate that language badly into something else…"

He starts pressing down.

And everyone can see the results.

Ghen agrees to surrender, and drops his weapons. So do all his men, around him.

Dave kicks Ghen's gun over to Catherine and Atrus, instructing them to disarm Ghen and his troops' guns so they can't be fired (which is right around the time we realize he was bluffing about the guns not going off). Dave decides that they need a way back to Seo, and he soon gets one.

Turns out, Riven's destruction the way they did it has only exacerbated the end of the universe. The Word Lords pluck Oliver out of the void, so that they can destroy it and redistribute its inhabitants.

Ghen uses this to get the upper hand, harming Dave and then bolting out the door himself.

Ghen is soon served a piece of humble pie from the Word Lords, when he tries but fails to impress them, and then tries but fails to destroy them so he can take their power — which leads to his ultimate destruction.

Dave is next on the chopping block, since he is a matter being in a non-matter universe, which could prove catastrophic. But Catherine intervenes, using the Judoon translator unit to cause a distraction.

Dave and Atrus run back into Seo's ship, which takes off.

Back to the beginning of the story …ffo sekat pihs ehT

* * *

Noticed all that crazy backwards writing throughout the story? The words that made no sense, and then the words "…and back and back…"?

Now, the story explains those words.

See, when Dave and Atrus run back into Oliver, they take off and use the Key's energy to send themselves crashing through the story — our story, the one you've been reading! They're hurtling backwards through the narrative.

Things like this:

_…nagebsdrowehterehwgninnigebyrevehtotthgiryrotsehtpudnapudnapudepsevaD…_

Are actually strings of backwards text, smushed together by the momentum of crashing backwards into the story. It actually says:

_…Dave sped up and up and up the story, right to the very beginning where the words began…_

When Dave arrived at the beginning of the story, where the Word Lords had been summarized, we got another string:

_…kcabogdluocyehtosrallocehtybmihdebbargdnadetnawehdroLdroWehtwasehsadewolsevaD…_

Which is backwards for:

_Dave slowed as he saw the Word Lord he wanted and grabbed him by the collar so they could go back._

You got it! Dave and Atrus picked up one of the legendary Word Lords — Had Been — and brought him forwards through the story, to the present point. As they hurtle forwards, again, they are coming "back and back…" to the future.


	38. Chapter 38

The Word Lord known as "Had Been" uses his monumental powers over time and continuity to convert Seo back into a person. Then he lectures the Word Lords for their wicked ways.

Seo and Catherine, meanwhile, are pulled inside of Oliver, where Atrus has already formed a plan. He needs Seo to materialize her ship around the planet of the Word Lords. Seo insists that she doesn't want to, because it would strand her here forever. But Catherine begs Seo to trust her husband, and Seo complies.

Seo does so, and when she does, the whole of reality goes wobbly.

Why?

What did Atrus do?

Turns out, Atrus altered the Trap Book so that it now holds more than one person, and so that it perfectly describes Seo's ship materializing around the Word Lords. When Seo made that reality actually happen, while her book was connected to the trap, the two worlds got confused.

When the wobbling stops, Seo discovers that the Word Lords have been trapped inside the book.

They'll get out, of course, but not for a little while.

That means that Seo and the others finally have time to figure out what to do to save the universe.

And Seo, inspired by Atrus' cunning, has a brilliant idea.

She takes out a quill pen formed from the feather of a temporal falcon, and asks Atrus to write the entire universe inside one of his books. It doesn't matter how much he knows of the universe, so long as he writes it exact and also writes that the feather of the temporal falcon draws energy from the instability, applied to the book.

Atrus agrees to do so only on condition that Dave finally tell Seo the truth.

"Truth?" Seo asks. "Truth about what?"

"The truth," Atrus says, "about his children."

Seo's eyes go wide.

And Dave, a little sheepishly, admits that he does love Alonna. And that they've had two children, together.

This leads to a lot of screaming between Seo and Dave.

* * *

We cut to Atrus' journal, where Atrus describes the way this story ends.

"At first, I wrote the book of the universe, just as Seo had said," Atrus writes. "But before long… I realized that I wasn't writing, anymore. The universe was writing itself."

The book stabilized the universe.

Seo then took the book that contained the entirety of the universe, and that had stabilized it. She placed it inside another trap book that Atrus wrote up for her.

Then Seo burned the linking book.

The prison dimension where the universe-containing book lies still exists. But all links to it are gone.

"As for the personal matter between Seo and Dave," Atrus writes, "well… Seo was furious and heartbroken. There was a lot of screaming between them both, when they dropped myself and Catherine off on our island of Myst."

On Myst, Catherine tried to comfort Seo. It was obvious that Seo had cared for Dave very deeply, and even though the affair was now over, she'd still had her heart broken. There would be a lot of tears before she overcame this.

"Then, one day, when Catherine and I awoke… we found that Dave and Seo had left," Atrus writes. "They'd both returned to their own universe, somehow. I never did work out how."

He wonders what happened to them.

Atrus laments that, in return for their saving his wife and giving them back his life, he had to return the favor by destroying both Seo's and Dave's. But — Atrus decides — maybe that's what he's learned. The dream of building D'ni up again on the ruins of the old D'ni is like Seo and Dave trying to build a relationship based on lies. The result may be beautiful, but what lies beneath will always come out, in the end. And make the beauty turn ugly.

Seo had said that perhaps ancient fallen civilizations should remain dead — and perhaps Atrus now agrees.

What's done is done. He can't undo what the Word Lords did, creating the Fall of D'ni or manipulating his family. He can't even go back and undo the wrongs his sons brought to the universe.

But he can build a better world on a more solid foundation, one where the D'ni could start over.

One where his family can start over.

Atrus can only hope that the two strangers, upon returning to their realm, will do the same.

* * *

_The End._

* * *

_That's all, dear readers! Hope you enjoyed all the fanfics over the years. I've loved having you as readers._

_Hope you all keep reading so you can enjoy my new novel, "Shockwave Vampires"_ _._

_Available soon on Amazon Kindle and Fictionpress._

_(Penname: Shoshi.Cooper)_


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